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Verizon is reportedly shelving further plans to sell Pixel phones:
Verizon has put an "indefinite hold" on plans to sell Google's Pixel phones, Android Police reported late Wednesday citing an unidentified source described as familiar with the company's plans. No specific reason was cited, but poor sales could have motivated the change.
Verizon on Thursday morning pushed back against the report, with a spokeswoman saying the mobile carrier will continue to work with Google and looks "forward to the new portfolio of devices." Android Police retracted its story hours later.
Since the original Pixel phone launched in 2016, Google and Verizon have been tied at the hip, with the nation's largest carrier serving as the exclusive partner for the phone franchise. That changed when Google unveiled the budget Pixel 3A in May, which was made available on multiple carriers for the first time.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 24 2020, @08:25PM (7 children)
Having a monopoly on cows, doesn't mean you have a monopoly on sheep. Even though, you may be a monopoly in one area. It's disingenuous to say they're a monopoly when in fact, they barely have a foothold in the production of the hardware.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday February 24 2020, @08:30PM (6 children)
Having a monopoly on cows and being a major vendor in sheep dealing with one of the three remaining grocery stores is all kinds of fucked up.
"We'll stop shipping you milk unless we get a better deal on lamb" is a perfectly valid threat. Monopolies suck.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 24 2020, @09:01PM (5 children)
That would be quite true, but there's no evidence for the "We'll stop shipping you Android" equivalence.
While the 3 main cell service providers are near monopolies, they aren't, because they have direct competitors. They could definitely collude like the TV manufacturers did a while back, which kept the TV prices unreasonably high for so long, but that's not legal. In fact T-Mobile earned a name for themselves by trying to shake things up a bit. Which actually did some good. Since, T-Mobile was really more of an afterthought up until that point.
Technically, Google isn't a Smart Phone OS monopoly, either. Since, there's Apple. They're not a monopoly as far as Search Engines go, they're not a monopoly as far as ad agencies go as far as I know, they're not a monopoly where web browsers are concerned. They have at least one competitor, if not multiple competitors in essentially all areas of their business. They just happen to be a super huge corporation that left behind their "Don't be evil" motto a long time ago.
Without Apple, both Microsoft and Google would be monopolies as Apple is the only other major competitor in both fields.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday February 24 2020, @09:04PM (1 child)
No, I guess there's no evidence for it.
But the power's there, and I restate my central premise. Monopolies suck.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 24 2020, @09:10PM
That they do, but Google is no "Ma Bell".
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 24 2020, @09:59PM (2 children)
Samsung can probably break out of the Android trap quickly if Google tries anything, using Tizen. I don't think they will ever have a reason to do so since they don't face U.S. sanctions problems like Huawei does, and they already modify Android to their liking. Huawei's HarmonyOS will get developed to work on smartphones. It may end up being used by tens or hundreds of millions of people in some form.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by petecox on Monday February 24 2020, @11:01PM (1 child)
Tizen, along with its predecessor Bada, enjoyed a lukewarm response on Samsung handsets due to the "app gap".
Any rival would need some sort of AOSP runtime, be it Anbox paired with microG. But even Android compat wasn't enough to save BB10 or make Sailfish OS a runaway success.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Monday February 24 2020, @11:36PM
If they can make it compatible with existing Android apps, they could force it on users without most of them noticing or caring. It just has to happen seamlessly for the users, and they will want to quell any media scaremongering.
https://commonsware.com/blog/2019/08/10/harmony-compatibility.html [commonsware.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]