4 ms·
From the article: "Neither the Moto G nor Moto X are sold in China, a result of the Chinese government's ban on Google services, which flow into its phones."
by blisterpeanuts 13y ago
From the article: "Neither the Moto G nor Moto X are sold in China, a result of the Chinese government's ban on Google services, which flow into its phones."
I don't understand this statement. All Android phones can have Google services; just add your google account in the settings. Is this feature disabled on Chinese Android phones?
It seems like China would be a natural market for such an inexpensive handset from a well known maker.
- bsimpson 13y agoI don't know the Chinese market, but I do know that there are Chinese forks of Android that swap Google search out for local competitors. A quick Google search shows Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba all have Android forks. Then again, MIUI is popular there, and I think that retains Google Search compatibility, so there Google ban seems to be more nuanced. Perhaps it's simply that Google-owned companies don't do business in China proper because they don't want to data-share with the Chinese government, so Motorola can't formerly enter that market (and Chinese Android phones use Hong Kong datacenters).
- forgotAgain 13y agoI read it as the Chinese government has banned Google services. Since Google phones have the services baked in the phones are also banned.
- Touche 13y agoAndroid phones in China use a fork of AOSP which doesn't have Google services.
- yapcguy 13y agoThis is a good thing, look at 4.4, it's horrible with Google+ and Hangouts replacing SMS...
- myko 13y agoYou're free to download whatever MMS app you want from Google Play.
- yapcguy 13y agoAre you free to delete the Google apps? No, they're protected by the system. You have to be root to remove them.
- deveshparekh 13y agoYou're perfectly free to disable them, which accomplishes the same thing as far as the user is concerned. The fact that the /system partition is mounted read-only for security and ease of system updates means you can't really delete them, but it also means you can't use that space anyway, so the ability to delete wouldn't be useful.
- dingaling 13y agoGoogle Play is blocked at the national firewall level in China, along with Google+ and Docs. And no doubt other services.
- bruceb 13y agoThere are already tons of cheap android phones in China. With Chinese brands trying to become a well known maker.
- bookwormAT 13y agoGoogle's "Apps for Android" are not part of Android, but a propritary software suite. That the Chinese government banned Google services means companies making an android-based operating systems are not allowed to license Google's app suite. So in the final OS there is no way to add your Google account. The feature is not "disabled", it is simply not part of the software.