> they think the audience is now fully captive.

It is, for the large sub-$800 segment of the smartphone market.

you mean sub $599, right?

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-16e

Which is still a valid argument, the number is just lower. And the UX on these sub 600 devices have definitely gotten worse over the last 5 years too... Likely because Google isn't really targeting that price point anymore, so Android isn't getting enough optimization to be viable on underpowered devices.

That was different in 2010-2020

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eloisant 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This market still exists and is pretty strong, especially outside of US. It's all on Android so Google doesn't need to try to compete here.

This is why with Pixel they're focusing on competing with the iPhone, they want people to use Android so there is no point in competing with other Android manufacturer.

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trinix912 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Is it really Google's Android? I have the feeling it's mostly Chinese manufacturers with their own Android versions sans the Google services.

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eloisant 19 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

When they sell them in China, yes.

But the same manufacturers sell Android phones with Play services in Europe, Japan, India, Indonesia, etc.

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ffsm8 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Android is still developed by google, yes.

The chinese are mostly adding skins on top, not developing the core of the operating system.

There is however a chinese fork of android (state sponsored), but it has not gotten wide market adoption in china either to my knowledge, but i dont live in china so i'm open to be corrected.

Finally, even if that OS has gotten widely adopted in china - it IS a fork. the changes are not being upstreamed to android, hence irrelevant to the discussion on this forum.

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trinix912 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm talking about the Google services which is where Google profits. Chinese phones ship without them. When I said "Google's Android", I meant Android+Google Services. The people buying cheap Android phones are most likely not buying Pixels. Even Samsungs aren't exactly cheap anymore. I'm not talking about Android forks. I'm talking about customized Android without Google services.

The biggest Android market (internationally) are Chinese phones. If Google suddenly decided Play Store should be the only way to install apps, that doesn't affect Huawei and Xiaomi phones at all, they don't ship with Play Store and Play Services in the first place.

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deaux 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Chinese phones sold in China ship without Google services. Chinese phones sold outside of China include them.

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trinix912 3 hours ago | parent [-]

That's false. The ones you can get here in Slovenia don't have them. I've personally helped quite a few friends sideload them. I also remember how shocked people were to find out there's no YouTube or Play Store after buying a Huawei or Xiaomi phone when that first came into effect.

	▲	psii 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Correct, same in Germany. Here is a photo I shot last December in an electronics store. Aurora Store is now official, I guess. https://imgur.com/a/v6zaRYo

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jaksdfkskf 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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