Odds are, Google will now actually make a profit from Android itself.
(All from the EEA)
Forked versions will have to contend with consumer and developer expectations; Just ask Amazon about those pressures, re: FIRE OS. Peoples idea of what Android is requires most of those apps, even when the use case doesn't require them. (TVs and streamers).
As is, the two apps that Google cares about, the cash-cows Search and Chrome, will be licensed for free so any aspiring competitor will have to buy their way onto phones. Impact on Google will be minimally negative to slightly positive.
This comes way too late to have any real market impact.
Edit:
From The Verge via MSN:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...pps/ar-BBOuttq
Quote:
But Google hasn’t historically charged for Android because of the revenue generated by Chrome and search. So if companies choose to separate Google’s products, they may find themselves paying license fees to Google for the first time.
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They ought to call it Android N-edition as a parallel to the oh-so-popular EU-only Windows N editions.