A brand new report by Janko Roettgers at Lowpass claims that Amazon is gearing as much as change Android with a brand new OS of its personal making in its Hearth TV, Echo Present good shows, and different units.
The report cites a number of sources, job listings, and different supplies that reference this effort, which matches by the codename Vega and is seemingly fairly far alongside in growth. OS growth is allegedly just about completed, and Amazon has already examined Vega on present Hearth TV {hardware}. It’s additionally instructed choose companions about its plans, which embrace a brand new utility framework for builders, and is now specializing in these efforts. The primary Vega-based Hearth TV units might ship as quickly as subsequent yr.
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Roettgers stated he first heard of Vega in 2019, and that the challenge—to create an “iOS/Android competitor for all units and IoT”—dates again to 2017. The system is web-based based mostly, and among the many a whole lot of staff engaged on the challenge is former Mozilla engineer and JavaScript knowledgeable Zibi Braniecki, who joined Amazon in 2022, asserting on LinkedIn that he was “engaged on a subsequent technology Working System for Good Dwelling, Automotive, and different Amazon Gadgets product traces.”
The transfer to internet applied sciences is fascinating and it might parallel Google’s transfer away from Android (and to Fuchsia) by itself good shows and different non-phone units. Like Fuchsia, Vega relies on a stripped-down model of Linux, and its app mannequin may very well be based mostly on React Native, which is cross-platform appropriate and will allow builders to create a single app that runs throughout a number of Amazon machine sorts.
Much more fascinating, this report claims that Amazon plans to drop Android all collectively in some unspecified time in the future throughout all of its units. So some future model of Vega will finally energy “in-car leisure techniques and different future {hardware} merchandise” too. What’s not clear is whether or not this Android exodus consists of merchandise like its Hearth HD tablets, or Kindle e-readers. However detaching itself from the Android Open Supply Challenge (AOSP) might remedy some issues, too, as Amazon’s units all the time lag behind different Android choices.
