And by virgin we mean untouched by hardware manufacturers! A spokesperson for Virgin Mobile has declared their commitment to the freedom that Android users love oh so much, through the selling of stock Android devices. While some legitimately enjoy the added features of skins like Sense and TouchWiz, many of us will tell you our favorite flavor of Android is vanilla.
This statement comes hot on the heals of Virgin’s intro of the Motorola Triumph yesterday. The Triumph will be Virgin’s first high end Android phone and a pretty sexy one at that. What really tops off this cake though, is that the Triumph is the first Motorola device we’ve seen stock Android in quite some time. If you want more about the Triumph, check out our hands on.
Virgin Mobile USA aims to make available devices that allow the end user to have the freedom to customize the device to their liking. We like to take a consistent approach with our Android portfolio and so we prefer to have the true Android experience loaded on all our Android phones.
The above statement, courtesy of a Virgin spokesperson to PCMag.com, is big news to many Android purists. While many a customer has voiced a desire for stock Android, this is the first time we’ve seen any support for it from a major player in the Android ecosystem other then Google. I for one hope that other carriers and OEMs will follow suit and at the least provide stock Android offerings. In the mean time big props to Virgin Mobile!
[via PCMag]
YES YES YES !!!!!
I still have my original Nexus One as it is the vanilla experience and the best experience.
Please bring these vanilla phones to Australia as well Richard 😉
It really doesn’t matter all that much unless the device is supported by Google, and Google isn’t going to support anything other than their “Google experience” devices, thus updates are up to the carrier and OEM and for low priced devices I wouldn’t expect much.
I hope manufacturers will take heed to this…there is a large segment of ppl who just want pure Virgin vanilla Android on their phones. A poll on Androidandme on june 10th, 67% of takers say they wud prefer pure virgin vanilla Android on their devices..abt time manufacturers Start providing such devices or at least make the option available to turn the manufacturer UIs off. Or provide such skins on Android market for those who want them. I will predict that any carrier who take this route will attract a lot of the Android purists…myself included : ). I was hoping Google will buy Tmo and turn it into a pure Android Experience hub/heaven.