Comment by tombert

Let's take this to the logical extreme: I can make my phone even more secure if I pound a nail through it so that it doesn't turn on anymore. The phone is really secure now; it is impossible to install any malware on it, no one can install a bitcoin miner or track my credit cards or anything.

Even better, how about we replace the concept of "smartphone" with a glossy print of a Pixel phone that people can carry in their pocket? It would be lighter and completely secure as there would be no way to run any software on it.

Obviously I'm being farcical here, but ultimately I think there's a spectrum of security, and generally speaking these kinds of "security increases" end up making the phone less useful. Sideloading apps is already disabled by default. Most users aren't going to enable it; really the only people who are going to enable this are nerds who want to sideload stuff, and there's a strong selection bias towards people who know how to take care of themselves in the first place.

Also, frankly I don't really buy the "security" argument anyway. These companies aren't selfless benevolent entities who care so much about us, they are for-profit enterprises. If all apps need to be approved by and purchased through Google, then they can extract more money from users, which wouldn't be true with a side-loaded app store (e.g. what Amazon tried).

I currently run an iPhone, but I don't like how locked down it is and I have considered moving back to Android because of that, but now I'm not really seeing the point. I could of course install Lineage or Graphene or something else but that's considerably more effort.

I wish Ubuntu Touch had gained traction.