Originally Posted by
moondog
Are you talking about the same Android that has a 90% -- and rising-- market share? The Android that is open source? If a billion people are able to use them without a hitch, I'm not sure what your gripe is. Inability to connect to Wifi? That's that's a first for me. I have had iPhones in the past, but I simply love my Huawei (bought in China). I currently have a Chinese SIM in slot 1 and a Fi SIM in slot 2. Of course I use a VPN, but the vast majority of Android users in China do not, and the world continues to turn.
I advise people to use whatever map service they are most comfortable with. I prefer Baidu because of its high level of detail, while others prefer Google, Gaode (AutonNavi), Maps.me, or even Bing. They all perform the same basic function.
Yeah, some people are predicting doomsday for the entire business model, and I've seen anecdotal evidence supporting this (e.g. people like to hide/hoard the nicest bikes in their own lobbies or behind bushes, which drives up capital costs). I do take the subway as long as I don't need to transfer, and there are some transfers I can deal with; where Mobike comes in handy (for me) is getting to/from subway stations that are 500-1500 meters away.
Sorry, I disagree with a lot of these statements. I think after two decades in China, you may have forgotten what it's like for a total newbie.
Baidu is NOT a workable solution for someone holidaying in China with no language skills. It's perfectly fine for residents or frequent visitors with even limited language skills. As such, even though I don't own Apple, apple maps DO work, in English, reasonably well, whereas google maps won't work without VPN. I can say, however, in my experience in Beijing, comparing google maps with Apple maps, the former is superior if one can access. Baidu maps is by far the best for traffic estimates (google is pretty hopeless here, and I don't have experience with Apple).
The issue about the lack of play store access is also a very real one. I can't download from the play store or update my apps when I have a Chinese SIM card in my (first gen) Pixel, even with VPN. The issues about pinging Google can be fixed with some googling (to excuse the pun), but again would need a working VPN to access the required information (I can't recall offhand what I needed to do, but I DID need to do something).
tb