Pathik Shah

How Google Could Eliminate the Amazon Threat to Android

Google is supposed to be focusing on Apple, which is currently dominating the tablet market with the iPad. Instead, it has been forced to fend off another major threat to Android – the Amazon Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is the biggest threat to Google, which has been trying to minimize the fragmentation of Android, and ironically, is the most popular Android tablet yet. Even so, Google has been completely locked out of the Kindle Fire ecosystem, so it probably won’t see a dime of revenue generated by the Kindle Fire.

Google is rumored to be working on a Nexus tablet to compete with the iPad, but apparently, the Nexus tablet will be an inexpensive $199 Android tablet powered by ICS which will compete with the Kindle Fire.

If Google is indeed working on such a tablet, it should stop right away.

Launching a $199 Android 4.0 tablet will not only severely impact sales of all other Android tablets and alienate its device partners like Samsung and HTC, but it will also mean Google taking a financial hit. Amazon itself is losing $10-$20 per tablet, and hopes to make money by selling Kindle content.

Here’s what Google should do instead:

Make it extremely easy to install Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the Kindle Fire. Launch a one-click flashing tool to flash an Android 4.0 ROM on the Kindle Fire.

This would not only give it back control of the Android ecosystem, but it would also be a huge hit to Amazon, which would continue to lose money on each Kindle Fire sold with no direct way to make it back.

I ‘m not getting into the technical specifics of how it would work; I’m sure Google can figure it out.

In case it can’t be done officially, Google can always bankroll such a project or help XDA developers develop such a pure Android 4.0 ICS ROM for the Kindle Fire.

This way, Google won’t alienate its tablet hardware partners, it won’t lose money selling cheap tablets, and it can focus on its main enemy – the Apple iPad.

Install Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on Samsung Galaxy S 2 II

The guys at sammobile have released an Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM (alpha) for the Samsung Galaxy S 2 II I9100.

You can download it using these links:

Download Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM I9100XXKP8

To install Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich on your Samsung Galaxy S 2, you will need:

- Samsung USB Drivers (Samsung Kies)
- ODIN Client
- Stock Android 2.3.5 ROM

How to Install Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich I9100XXKP8 on Samsung Galaxy S 2 II

Install Samsung Kies from the official website – Samsung Kies

Make sure the USB drivers have been installed properly with Kies. Now close Kies and make sure Kies isn’t running in the Task Manager.

Download Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich ROM I9100XXKP8 (via XDA)

Extract all the files (ROM + Odin client) from the file (password: samfirmware.com)

Start ODIN client as administrator, and select these files:

PIT – u1_02_20110310_emmc_EXT4.pit
PDA – I9100_CODE_I9100XXKP*_CL42141_REV02_user_low_ship.tar.md5
PHONE – MODEM_I9100XXKP*_REV_02_CL1092599.tar.md5
CSC – GT-I9100-MULTI-CSC-OXAKP*.tar.md5

Also select these check boxes:

Re-Partition
Auto Reboot
F.Reset Time

On your Galaxy S 2, go to Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging > Enable it.

Now switch off your phone and enter download mode.

To enter download mode, hold the Volume Down + Menu Key and press the Power button.

After you see the yellow Download mode screen, just connect it to your PC via USB.

You should now see the ID:COM section turn Yellow and the message box display ADDED. If you don’t, repeat the whole process.

Click on the Start button to begin the flashing process.

In 5 minutes, your Samsung Galaxy S 2 should reboot with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich installed.

Note: It’s not risky, but still proceed with caution. I’m not responsible if you brick your phone.

For more details, visit XDA