Google Blocking Asus's Android-Windows "Duet"?

[wraggster]

Android is free and open," reiterated Google Android Chief Andy Rubin (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370464,00.asp) in 2010 as Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7. Rubin added, 'Competition is good for the consumer and if somebody has an idea for a feature or a piece of functionality in their platform and Android doesn't do it, great. I think it's good to have the benefit of choice, but in the end I don't think the world needs another platform.' But now, CNET and Digitimes report that Google is holding up the Asus Transformer Book Duet TD300 (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57620071-92/google-cited-as-bothered-by-android-windows-hybrid/)(specs (http://www.asus.com/us/News/hnzqzGZ8TfSnrQTo)), a laptop-tablet hybrid that can instantly switch between Android and Windows 8.1. A source familiar with the Asus Duet told CNET that Google is the one that has not favored the idea, while Microsoft has not, to date, been actively opposed to the idea. 'If true,' reports Apple Insider, 'it may not be the first time Google has helped to quash such a product (http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/03/07/rumor-google-pressured-asus-to-cancel-androidwindows-dual-boot-devices).' South Korean electronics giant Samsung quietly canceled plans for its hybrid Ativ Q (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Ativ_Q) tablet last year, and Digitimes notes that Asus may not be the only company to bow to Google's wishes.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/03/09/1341236/google-blocking-asuss-android-windows-duet