The largest handset maker in the world, Samsung, created their own mobile OS, Tizen, which failed to gain traction on smartphones. If I were to consider making an open-source mobile OS, I'd start there in looking at why Tizen failed.

What a weird article. This is an article about Android OS, but the headline makes it seem like Google is affecting the whole smartphone (including iPhones).

> What was once a useful tool has now become an instrument of torture, designed to extract as much money from consumers as possible.

What? "instrument of torture", for charging money? Lets read on to see how the author supports this statement

> And to keep it that way, Google is quietly locking away its phones’ source code to make it as hard as possible for people to build better alternatives.

I'm sorry what? Author claims Android is becoming closed source (incorrect) and that is to keep competitors away?

I dont know what sort of person lives in these kind of bubbles, let alone write an article like this.