MG Siegler for TechCrunch:
Google’s Android Market is nowhere to be found. In fact, no Google app is anywhere to be found. This is Android fully forked. My understanding is that the Kindle OS was built on top of some version of Android prior to 2.2. And Amazon will keep building on top of that of that over time. In other words, this won’t be getting “Honeycomb†or “Ice Cream Sandwich†— or if it does, users will never know it because that will only be the underpinnings of the OS. Any visual changes will be all Amazon.
This might be the first successful Android tablet and the fact that you don’t see anything of Google’s UI could be one of the main reasons for it. That and the supposed price of just $250 US including an Amazon Prime membership.