But via things like Android, they tend to lock tou into their SaaS offerings. The goal is the same adware/spyware system that has long plagued Windows. Maybe not to the same extent or with the same OS implications, but I wouldn't discount the problems that this can cause in the future as Google expands into more areas.
For example it recently occurred to me: Google Voice transcribes your voice mail to text. I wonder to what extent they index that and use this as a sample of your telephone conversations as a way of better targetting ads to you. That strikes me as very scary because at that point I have no control over the retention of this information and then it becomes something the government can easily subpoena via something like the Stored Communications Act.