Why are OEMs like Samsung just letting this happen? A lot of power users who buy flagships will leave for iPhones if Android ceases to be an open platform. (This segment is what is preventing the “green bubbles = poor” narrative from taking over.)
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> This segment is what is preventing the “green bubbles = poor” narrative from taking over.
In the US maybe. In Europe, not so much. With Apple having a market share of "only" about one third and WhatsApp being the de facto default messaging app, this discussion never happened here.
Therefore your argument doesn't apply to Europe at all. Android is more than the "hacky" part. Albeit I'd really love to keep that.
whatsapp is a different form of the same malignant cancer, or so the unremovable meta-ai overlay seems to say.
> A lot of power users who buy flagships will leave for iPhones if Android ceases to be an open platform.
99.9% of people who use Android have never, and never will, install apps outside the Play Store, and aren't even aware that they can do so.
Did you consider piracy?
I'd guesstimate that close to 50% of Android users know how to install an apk.
You think 50% of the 3.6 billions of android users know that?
There are countries like China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela where installing an APK is the primary or only way to get most software, including essential bank and government apps.
Outside of the Western market, installing Android apps not from Google Play is a completely normal and regular thing. In countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Philippines (which represent a massive portion of global Android users) it is a standard part of using a phone.
I have never seen people in the EU talk about the bubble colours. Texting is virtually dead in the EU as I know it, it's all in messaging services.
It's not like they didn't try, but Google illegally smashed them.
> Judgment of the General Court of 14 September 2022 — Google and Alphabet v Commission (Google Android) > > The General Court largely confirms the Commission's decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/202...
Press release:
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/202...
Samsung's fought Google on a few different fronts over the years and conceded most of those fights.
why would I leave for IPhones? I want the other direction of freedom.