That's enough to sink (bankrupt, completely destroy) some handset makers if they don't play ball. Starting development after a few other companies have already released their products isn't going to work for most of these companies.

How much lead time will "pre-release" offer? A month? 6 months? Maybe a year. I'm guessing between 6 months and a year myself.

Having the "open" version of Android come out "eventually" is perfectly fine for some companies. It would be perfectly fine for my intended use for example, but that version simply won't be useful at all to be competitive in the mobile handset space. It could even be fine for a company like Amazon who could use it to offer what ends up being their own platform without so much as a single Google mention. Now, if everyone did this, Google would be screwed - and they know that. That is the big impetus in controlling the release of Android versions, not what Joe consumer thinks.

I'll put it in plain English. Google doesn't give a rat's ass what the consumer thinks about Android fragmentation and extra UI bits from third parties.

Android's only purpose is to bring in money for Google. That's it. It's not about some lofty holy crusade against Apple and other closed systems. And there's nothing wrong with that. If everyone starts heavily customizing and dropping Google services that expose eyeballs to advertisements, then Google's suddenly running a charity. And the last thing Google is about is charity. Google doesn't do free as in beer.

I'm playing devil's advocate here, because as I've already stated, as a consumer, I agree with a tighter Android experience. But manufacturers have apparently already started the complaints to the DoJ about Google.