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There was a recent Android blog post that said "we will be making changes in Android 12 (next year's Android release) to make it even easier for people to use other app stores on their devices". https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/09/listening-...

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I bet they only announced that because Epic sued them on these grounds soon before that.

"Android has always allowed people to get apps from multiple app stores. In fact, most Android devices ship with at least two app stores preinstalled, and consumers are able to install additional app stores. "

What is the most common preinstalled app store besides Google play?

I'm going to guess the Samsung one.

90% of future Android 12 users will only get it when their phone dies and they buy a new one.

It's actually getting better. New versions of Android are getting adopted faster: https://www.gsmarena.com/report_android_11_has_the_fastest_a...

It's not yet at iOS levels, but Google is actually getting there, I'm impressed. It's much easier to pull this off when you're a huge company making the hardware and the software and you can just boss OEMs and telecom companies around, it's much harder when you have a Microsoft Windows-like arrangement.

They're still at least 5 years from getting near iOS, but still... progress! :-)

IF one happens to own a flagship Android device from top brands, nothing changed for the devices that most people actually buy in large quantities for their pre-paid cards.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/4/20847758/google-android-up...

Google's own security reports marketing usually only focus on the devices where they can sell a nice Treble picture.

It will trickle down. Even for those top brands it was a struggle.

Nokia will gladly sell me a new device for Android 11, even though other devices from them of similar age as 7+ already got it, and they are one of the best update stories currently.

Meanwhile most shopping malls in Germany still sell pre-paid phones with Android 7 and above.

It will be ages before Android 12 is on a plurality of devices, not even a majority.

That's assuming the feature even materializes. I don't it's cynical to assume that Google might shelve a "feature" that undermines their own business at the first opportunity.

I bet they invest billions of resources to this feature.

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