Android is right over there ->

Or hell, anybody from AU should really spin up a tech company or build a phone

> Android is right over there

Where? Apple and Google are a cosy cartel engineered to never let you out.

You sound so helpless as if apple and google are forcing you to buy their phones. Victim much?

Google and Apple aren't, but my banks and government services are trying their best.

You are in fact literally required to purchase an Apple or Google phone to participate in an OECD economy. Your employer will require it, your government will require it. Increasingly, your banks and doctors will require it. Unless you're telling people to live off the grid? But maybe we can have something between the two extremes of living in a fucking jungle or submitting to an enforced duopoly wherein two companies control what billions of people can publish and take a 30% cut from it all? No? That too unreasonable for you?

Literally can't do banking without them. Nor park my car. Nor interact with 99% of all businesses here.

Literally have never had a banking app on any phone. I must not be banking.

Or you're in a different country from me.

You live in a country that requires a smartphone to open a bank account?

Thank god for the US government who had Huawei start HarmonyOS so that long term there will be competition in the world

I would love to know of a water resistant phone of a different operating system, anybody know of one?

Epic will still be dissatisfied. They were dissatisfied when they had their android store. It didn’t turn out like they thought. They thought they were gonna be making bank but most people did not flock to their store.

Not OP, but I get where they're coming from. I see how for some people, having a phone where the only (reasonable) path to getting an app is to have it vetted is a feature, not a bug. It's not "restricting my choices", it's "restricting what developers can do to me".

I don't have a super strong opinion here. I lean a bit more towards thinking that the current status is better than the alternative: Based on what I see in news / tech news / in general it sounds like "the price of apps"* is less of a problem in today's day and age than "app _X_ tracks every thing you do and your location, sells that data and now [elections are skewed | supermarkets implement dynamic pricing | ICE can track you], etc".

* I am aware that is more than "price of apps", I'm simplifying a bit here. I'm not a fan of Apple imposing restrictions on how you can purchase stuff.