Android is struggling to keep its market share in the United States, as Apple continues to take over in the market. But, despite Android as a whole losing ground, Google Pixel phones are becoming a bigger slice of the US market.

Counterpoint Research reports that, in Q2 2023, US smartphone shipments dropped by 24% year-over-year. That includes both iPhones and Android phones, and virtually every brand saw a drop in shipments. Samsung saw US shipments drop by 37% while Motorola saw a 17% drop. TCL saw the biggest decline at just shy of 70% year-over-year, and even Apple saw a 6% drop.

  • Coeus@coeus.sbs
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    1 year ago

    A pixel with custom firmware that removes the Google is my preferred phone choice.

    • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Is there a way to recover the stock OS if you brick it?

      I know PCs are completely fail-safe in this regard, since you can always factory reset the machine by booting an installation image of the stock OS, but what about phones?

      • Coeus@coeus.sbs
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        1 year ago

        Google makes it very easy to flash Pixels back to stock through Chrome browser. Recently I was trying to flash /e/os to my Pixel 4a 5G. I bricked it 6 times and still can’t get it to install but I was able to flash back to stock easily. I recommend Graphene OS on the Pixel of you want to start taking back your life and start removing Google from it.

        • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Nice.

          Which keyboard do you use? I’ve been trying FlorisBoard (installed from F-Droid) on the stock OS, but the swipe typing is frustratingly inaccurate compared to Gboard.

          • Coeus@coeus.sbs
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            1 year ago

            I tried out FlorisBoard earlier this year and was having the same issues. I am currently using this and it works more or less like gboard but without the G.

              • Coeus@coeus.sbs
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                1 year ago

                I would assume because it was a one off type thing. People liked open board buy wanted swipe typing so it was forked and it was added. The apk is available on github.

          • Coeus@coeus.sbs
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            1 year ago

            Yes, it’s called a bootloader. It needs to be unlocked before unsigned firmware can be ran on the phone. Unlocking the bootloader is simple and the the guides with show you how to do it.