The mobile space really needs a shake-up from the entrenched duopoly as currently the choice are a rock or a hard place.
You can definitely de-google AOSP (and I believe a few phones sell on that promise if you don't want to ever interface with that stuff). You can't de-apple IOS as of now.
I don't think that problem will be solved anytime soon. Network effects + market capture = no one is going to want to learn a new system. The desktop space has been 3 platforms for decades and the only potential challenger is... Google. Meanwhile, Microsoft, Blackberry, and Palm all dropped out nearly a decade ago and there's nothing new on the horizon.
If you do care about privacy and having control of your own hardware, Google is the only choice, and that should be very obvious. Not because Android is so much better, but because you have a lot of options, even using a custom rom if you want. No such option with Apple.
Google is an ad company so it's totally not obvious to me.
> Not because Android is so much better, but because you have a lot of options, even using a custom rom if you want.
Oh, and can I pay with my phone when using those custom roms, for example?
Google being an ad company is irrelevant here. I wasn't clear in my wording, I should have said 'Android as a platform' and not Google, is the only choice, and it is.
Sure, there are disadvantages and it's not perfect, but it doesn't matter. If you care about privacy, using something like Graphene or eOS on a Fairphone is your best option.
> Oh, and can I pay with my phone when using those custom roms, for example?
The demand isn't there for that. Help change that and be the change you want to see in the world.
If trying to get enough public support to push for structural change is the idea, then iOS is currently moving toward being less locked down, while Android has been getting more locked down.