Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

Post by no_wizard » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #571

swiftcoder wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In which category are there better iOS apps? Almost all of the prosumer apps on iOS offer a consistently better experience. This is maybe less relevant on phones than on tablets, but music production, video editing, digital painting and drafting, etc...

That isn't saying much. Even the best possible music editing (etc) app on a tablet is still crappy, by virtue of the form factor. Tablets simply are not suitable for getting actual work done.

Post by shadowgovt » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 10:06 PM UTC

epolanski wrote: post #635

AlotOfReading wrote: post #12

Google's long term strategy with Android is baffling to me. Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Apple has higher consumer trust. Apple has better app selection (for most people). Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices, like USB-C and RCS. Every Android user lost to the increasing iOS market share is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees t…

Not everybody wants/cares for an iPhone. Realistically a 200 euros Xiaomi phone, to most users, is as good as they need it for seeing videos online and chatting. If you want to spend more, at each price tier you have plenty of choice including: better hardware, better cameras, more memory, etc. E.g. I do need dual (physical) sim phones. So I ain't buying iPhones ever for this very need. Consumer trust is very debatab…

Post by StopDisinfo910 » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 10:19 PM UTC

manuelabeledo wrote: post #309

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, recheck. Both Qualcomm and Mediatek have caught up on the phone SoC market. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has a slightly better CPU than the A19 Pro but a slightly worse GPU. Apple has a very slight advantage in watt usage but that's more than offset by the battery gap. Same thing with the Dimensity 9500. The SoC market is now extremely competitive.

Beats A19 Pro in Geekbench, at 65% higher power consumption. How is that a win?

Post by kwanbix » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 10:20 PM UTC

AlotOfReading wrote: post #12

Google's long term strategy with Android is baffling to me. Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Apple has higher consumer trust. Apple has better app selection (for most people). Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices, like USB-C and RCS. Every Android user lost to the increasing iOS market share is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees t…

Post by kwanbix » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 10:23 PM UTC

password1 wrote: post #431

onli wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any iOS advantage with the apps anymore. That was maybe true in the very beginning, during the gold rush time of the app store. But not since then. In which category are there better iOS apps? Browsers? No, strictly worse. Youtube app? No, worse. Texting? Worse or equal (Whatsapp). Podcast client? I assume worse, since there is no Antenna Pod. Social media apps? The iOS variants of those apps are afaik in…

There's a saying in mobile development that in most companies the Android version of the app is a second class citizen. It usually brings substantially less money and so less money are invested in it. As a result the Android team is often understaffed and the app is almost always behind in feature development, less polished and with overall worse UX and more bugs compared to the iOS app. Also iOS still has a communit…