[Nokia 7 Plus Guides, News, & Discussion] Gravemind2015:
I read that article yesterday. It confirmed what I had suspected all along. I had a nice chat in a telegram group about this. I'll post my side of conversation here, they contain my opinions. I'm sorry I'd love to type all that but it's very late here and I'm already getting a bit of headache [emoji14]

TL;DR - Google needs to look into this and also clarify how much "freedom" OEMs get to play in the Androidone ecosystem. And HMD should have their own software division as it'll also help people directly connect through their forums.

Gravemind2015:

Well it needs to be said now, more than ever. I had my suspicions from day one, and now it's clear that 2 of their 3 promises are based on thin air.

As evenwell isn't part of either AOSP or androidone, the "pure" tag deserves to be used on pixel phones more than HMD phones.

And, as the company evenwell, if it even is a company, or rather a division inside FIH to handle software; is shady enough. Even the MIUI and other Chinese ROMs have clear development divisions inside their company and the software are at least handled by the phone company themselves.

Another interesting thing to note is if FIH makes the hardware and ships the software, what is the role of HMD in the making of phones? Only designing sketches I guess. They're more interested in selling the stuff, rather than making it. This is what makes the key difference between HMD and Nokia. Nokia made the phones, innovative or not. HMD is just selling customized generic phones, although the hardware has quality.

I know it might hurt to read this, and I'm aware as I've two Nokia smartphones in my house too, but the sad truth is they are not what they advertise they are, people buy the phones thinking they are Nokia, we buy phones thinking they are HMD consisting of people who worked at Nokia, but they are just like every other phone that was built by a single manufacturing company.

Although the hardware manufacturing is understandable as the company is relatively new and is building a sustainable business before diving into a DYI approach, the least they could have done is to invest in an in-house software development division to handle the software component.

Another interesting thing to look here is the role of Google and to know if addition of core system level applications as well as usage of substitute system apps in place of the AOSP/Google implementation are allowed in phones under the Androidone program; and if so, the definition of "pure" android that Google true to relate it's Androidone term to. If androidone is advertised at is best and Android as how Google sees it; then maybe they consider evenwell a part of androidone, and maybe consider that FIH division to be very good and competent. I doubt if Google actually admits to it, but the statements I told here in the previous sentence are the common sentences being used to describe androidone; at least in Nokia events."

Another thing to add: If they really can't have their own software team, they can at least ensure transparency and Google should check the Android software and block the usage of the power.g3 sort of applications at minimum. And give public a clear and easy to understand definition of androidone, what the OEMs have freedom to choose from etc.

And one benefit of HMD having their own software division would be that they could directly connect and take feedback from the users and then work on them. They've got their own forum, they've got Twitter too. Am in-house division would help them supervise on the "secure" part too.

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