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by rcarmo·10y ago·view on hn ↗
I tried to do this a few years back and it was completely impossible to order anything from the Google store and have it delivered to Portugal.

Although I routinely rebuilt Android to reflash my Nook Color and even rebuilt Android x86 for the "Magalhães" school laptops on a lark, I could not beg, borrow or steal an Android device with "proper", vanilla Android for myself without resorting to shady imports and zero warranty.

So after a year of using an HTC One[1] and, later, a moderately vanilla LG 4, I quietly went back to the iPhone, got a Nexus 7 (2013) to scratch my occasional Android development itch, and haven't looked back. The ecosystem is _so_ much better, Safari on it (and my iPad) still knocks Chrome on Android out of the park from a user perspective, and I can tinker all I want on stuff like the Remix PC and the ODROID without having to put up with a lousy phone user experience.

Would I use Android? Yes, for sure - but I wouldn't _like_ it.

Would I develop for it? Sure, no problem. Did that for digital signage, even[2].

Would I develop for it _first_? Doubtful. The only serious money in it is in vertical (B2B) apps and suchlike.

Would I develop web apps for it _first_? Like... are you serious? With the market being what it is?

So although I "get" the article, I think it's not that realistic.

[1]: http://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2013/10/20/2230 [2]: https://github.com/rcarmo/android-signage-client