Corpo marketing to obfuscate the idea of installing software and nurture dependency to pre-installed proprietary repositories for an entire crowd of dependent non-tech savvy users that doesn’t know what an apk is probably.

I avoid using the term unless I’m being cheeky about “sideloading” from Google Play.

Because the media uncritically parrots the companies PR talking points and then it’s suddenly the accepted terminology.

I mean, it’s the word I’ve heard used for this all my life, and it’s much shorter than “installing software without an app store”.

It’s not bad journalism to use terms of art.

I’ve started seeing it from people talking about Windows.

The powers that b really were ahead of the game when they introduced smartphones to the masses (dumbasses).

They were keen to make sure that the upset to their power structure that the digital revolution initially caused never happens again.