Comment by bigstrat2003
20 days ago
I suspect this won't be disastrous for Google, because where will people care about this go? Apple, who is even more restrictive? This is just another in a long series of incidents showing why we desperately need a real alternative to the mobile duopoly. I would ditch Android over this, but there's no realistic alternative available to me.
Damn the future sucks ass.
It's a good question. I've looked at PinePhone, but last time I looked at it in detail it was light-years outside my needs for usability (very much a "we are CLI authors and are trying our hands at a mobile UI as a hobby" situation).
I think I'll look into what Android phones are out there that aren't glued to the Google Play ecosystem. Side-loading is still a feature the OS core supports even if Google switches it off (for now, and AFAIK the OS is forkable if they press the issue).
I think the only thing hat can save us is a jailbreak. Either for iOS or Android to let you sideload apps.
Alternatively, and that’s almost bullshit, the dumb phone trend continues and we might get devices like PDAs. Get a dumb phone and a small camera and then your PDA for everything that is essentially an app. Not sure what OS they’d run but I don’t see another way.
I think "disastrous" is a bit too strong of a word, but I don't see any "real" reasons mentioned here why it won't be. Sure, there are "cheap" phones that are (almost always) Android, it's also probably true that "most people" use those and wouldn't switch no matter what. But there are also Pixel phones, Samsung Galaxy phones, you know, what people call "flagships". Why people buy these? It's been a long time since they stopped being competitively cheaper they Apple. Even flagship Huawei phones now cost the same as an iPhone. Who buys them? Well, I did. Solely because I couldn't install software I want on iPhone. If I truly won't be able to install what I want on my Android phone — I don't know yet, how I'll deal with that issue (surely I'll figure it out) but I promise you — I'll buy an iPhone for the first time in my life, if only to say "fuck you" to Android. And I urge you to do the same. Vote with your wallet.