Amazon is alleged to have planned leaving Android for new Fire TV, smart display, in automobile entertainment systems and forthcoming hardware goods.
Making a Switch to New Operated Systems.
According to renowned lowpass journalist Janko Roettgers; citing “several insiders familiar with this plan” as well a number of vacancies notices pointing in this direction, this web-forward OS running on Linux is an internally-developed software that Amazon is
Project Vega
Codenamed-operating “Vega” has reportedly been in development since at least 2019, possibly starting as early as 2017 with the original concept conceived already by then. According to reports this involved internal discussions as well as some of the processor manufacturers. Specific release date is yet a secret, but according to Rottergers, “Most of the development was already done.” These development is believed to have been handled by a team of hundreds of person such as a former Mozilla Engineer known as Zibi Braniecki who joined Amazon in
Testing and Rollout
It is claimed that Vega testing has already started for Fire TV stick items while the SDK and all “value-added” features are being prepared to persuade developers to spend their time and money on it. Sources have revealed that Amazon could be introducing Vega in some televisions as soon as 2015.
Motivation Behind the Shift
According to Roettgers, Amazon felt this compulsion because it was afraid to be several generations behind the most advanced android versions. Likewise, the current Fire TV relies on an older version of Android which is now at Android 9 and this one came out five years ago as well.
Resolving Conflicts with Google
Amazon can also manage the conflict they may get into with Google by adopting Vega instead of android in their Kindles. According to reports, Google is alleged to have persuaded hardware makers not to develop smart TV sets using Amazon’s FireOS. A second agreement made it possible for Amazon to work together with some television manufacturers. However, Vega would have provided more space for flexibility and freedom of operation.
Potential Benefits
Switching to a proprietary operating system could also improve Amazon’s software development processes. AOSP has code which is not necessary for Amazon and which was developed for diverse devices mostly for smartphones. This extra code is why Google didn’t use to deploy Android in its smart displays initially and now shifted to using Fuchsia OS that is based on Linux.
Development Framework
According to Vega for app development, which would be based on Linux, they would use React Native—a framework created by Meta. React Native utilizes JS based interfaces that facilitate writing of a common codebase supporting simultaneous development of apps meant for iOS, android platforms as well as smartphones.
The report only doesn’t give clarification if this operating system is to be used with amazon’s fire tablets, from which installing all android applications via sideload of play store is easy.
