Google could cause some trouble for companies that make and sell televisions as well as smartphones and other devices that run on the Android platform. You can immediately bring up the names of South Korean giants Samsung and LG. The issue is Google enters into licencing agreements with these manufacturers for the use of its Android software in their devices. But the televisions from the same manufacturers run Amazon’s Fire TV on their Android-powered TVs. This is not acceptable to Google and the company is dangling the agreement in front of these manufacturers that allows Google to stop offering the use of Google Play Store and other Google services on their other products too, like smartphones. That could put companies like Samsung under a lot of pressure. Android Compatibility Commitment is the policy under which this condition appears.
Amazon Fire TV is also a popular choice among many customers and the TV manufacturers don’t want to lose them.
Google’s take on this scenario is simple and straightforward: Android TV devices that offer Google’s services and the Play Store are put through security review and compatibility testing to protect user data privacy and security. Google says this also ensures that the various apps that are primed to function within the Android ecosystem perform to their potential as they are vetted by Google. Any other software being run alongside can compromise this security environment and either the apps could malfunction or there could be data security breach or both. Google does not want this to happen.
Having said all this in a key market like the US, it is the third player, Roku TV that has a lion’s share of the TV OS market with 30%. Android and Amazon’s Fire TV hold 9% and 12% respectively.