Of course they are. They always did. The entire ecosystem is so closely tied to google services that it's almost impossible to use the phone without them (if you want to use banking and security apps). For now the only alternative is iOS and I'm starting to doubt if mobile Linux will ever become usable.

Yes, they incentivize another 0.001%. How is google going to survive this?

Tech geeks acting as multiplication factors are the people who brought Apple from obscurity to mainstream.

That was 40 years ago. Any more recent examples?

Yep. Thanks to this, I'm moving to IOS with a x64 handheld. I won't need a smartphone beyond calls and tethering so, why bother. Google can enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Which? Rn, a Steam Deck, but soon, something smaller and more palmable, still fishing for something good. I'd even take something pi-based.

Hard truth: With America going to shit, the EU needs a smartphone brand like...yesterday. Germans, get cooking!

iOS isn't any better. I'm looking to OnePlus and maybe LineageOS. Hopefully GrapheneOS isn't dead.

the EU needs a smartphone brand like…yesterday

• 

  We are Fairphone

  We make technology with a purpose—designed to last longer, perform better, and make a real impact. And we’ve been at it for more than a decade.

  

  Fairphone (www.fairphone.com)

• 

  Wir sind HMD, Hersteller von Android™-Smartphones und Feature Phones.

  Egal, ob du ein Handy mit einem starken Akku brauchst, eins mit großartigen Kameras oder eins, das du zu Hause reparieren kannst: Im HMD-Onlineshop findest du alles, was du brauchst.

  

  HMD - Human Mobile Devices (www.hmd.com)

• 

  The Privacy Respecting European OS and AI Solution Provider

  Jolla offers privacy-first OS and Edge AI solutions continuing the legacy of Nokia and MeeGo, driving mobile innovation into the human-centric AI era.

  

  The Privacy Respecting European OS and AI Solution Provider (jolla.com)

Germans, get cooking!

• https://www.gigaset.com/de_de/cms/smartphones-uebersicht.html

I don't agree with the other person but the closest example that I could find would be OnePlus. They had no physical shops, used word of mouth (influencers), had good marketing (flagship killer), and were relatively cheap. They quickly rose the ranks and became a mainstream brand.

How will Samsung/OnePlus use Android 17 and 18?

Lineage os and graphene os are both based on AOSP, no ? How to expect these projects to survive if AOSP becomes closed source ?

What worries me the most is the support for our phone. Constructor provides bad to average support for new android versions. Meanwhile, these projects can last for a long time. I have a one plus 7 pro and it is running on YAAP, receives OTA security updates every month and all the major versions of Android. Killing AOSP will lead to killing long term support of our phone.

This myth needs to die. The only parts of BSD that Apple used for iOS/osx, were from bsd4.4 (released in like the 1990s). And even then it was only parts of the user space.

The kernel is a completely different beast.

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That's not what I meant. Will the other OEMs have to pay Google for using Android 17 (since it's not open-source anymore) ?

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I specifically said BSD style license.
ChatGPT claims i the kennel started as a mix of the mach and FreeBSD kennels as base, improved by Apple. sadly I could but find any proper source

are you seen to know that "The kernel is a completely different beast.", maybe you can shed some light

I think iOS is better than stock Android because Apple is not in ad business so it has better privacy protections. Its locked ecosystem sucks but privacy wise it's better.

I went with GrapheneOS because it's fairly large user base means that it will last longer than other, less used mods. But in the end it will only survive for as long as Google let's it.

Hope and fairy farts mostly. I'm assuming they'll branch out from what they have now if Android chooses to do that. Ala MariaDB.

It's not. iOS has just been awful for a long time and since it hasn't been downgraded in recent memory and some people take that as a positive thing.

iOS does not have better privacy protections. Privacy is more than putting the word Privacy in an ad. French Regulators fined Apple millions for illegal data collection AND they're still being sued by multiple orgs. In fact, you have no choice to opt out of the collection, only to opt out of it being used for personalization. Android has more granular controls over every permission. Until they really pull the plug GrapheneOS and others still count on Androids side as well.

Apple was cool before the iMac in '98. After that they've been drumming their products down. There is genuinely no advantage. "It just works" except it works less than my windows machine. "It's more Unix like" Windows has WSL now. "Muh Enclave Chip" TPM is better. Both collect your data.

Anyone who prefers or likes Apple products does it because of vibes and appearance rather than anything with technical.

I do want to add, Android beating iOS in privacy isn't a high mark. It doesn't mean Android is good with privacy.

You are right that it will continue, I was too dramatic. However the big advantage of AOSP is to have a solid common base.

AFAIK (I may be wrong), you have to pay google for bundling Google Play Services on your phone. For example, Purism probably does not pay Google anything because it only uses AOSP + it's own suite of services. However, Android 17 will be a bit concerning. Let's wait till we get a bit more clarity.