Comment by miki123211

> the way they actually differentiate phones is on real hardware differences that show up in the specs

You forgot about one thing they care about above all others — cost.

And the easiest way to keep costs down is through "alternative revenue streams", which involve your own tracking, your own app bundling deals and your own App Store, which you're pushing on users constantly. And if you do that, you may as well get the branding win from doing the custom skin too.