We should remember that the late Blackberry phones did have Android app compatibility and still failed. Librem and PinePhone are not even at the starting point yet, which is unfortunate.
We should remember that the late Blackberry phones did have Android app compatibility and still failed. Librem and PinePhone are not even at the starting point yet, which is unfortunate.
Generally supporters of FOSS phones who have to run an Android bank app or their country’s official ID app which is SafetyNet and Play Services-dependent, are encouraged to simply get a cheap Android phone for those limited purposes. Not to expect the PinePhone or Librem to run such apps.
Blackberry didn't have an amazing OS to hold it up. That's why it failed
People who depend on e.g. WhatsApp to communicate with friends and family simply won't switch to a phone that doesn't run WhatsApp.
Those messaging apps (or apps like Uber/Lyft) in particular have network effect (i.e. the decision is not solely your own) and a new entrant for the phone hardware has to support those apps (hence the Blackberry's decision to be Android compatible) or they are dead on arrival.
I don't think there are many apps that people depend on on Windows or Mac in the same way people depend on WhatsApp or Uber on their phone.
Sure, people in certain occupations may need to use Windows/Mac-only apps, but there's plenty of people who don't use them.
I run Linux Mint on my laptop (and have for years) because there's no Windows or Mac apps I personally want to run. This is thanks largely to (a) webapps (e.g. Google Docs), and (b) cross platform dev tools that made e.g. VSCode, Brave, etc possible (which doesn't exist for phones outside Android/iOS), and (c) me not being a gamer.