I’m a fan of stock/vanilla Android, I like the look of it and I also like the feel; I’m not a huge fan of skins and normally flash as soon as I can. It seems Virgin Mobile in the USA feels the same way. Virgin Mobile, which in the USA is a subsidiary of Sprint, have put their best foot forward and have pledged to only stock and sell handset that give their customers the true “Google Experience” and with that they mean stock/vanilla Android.
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.
It’s a big move by a carrier, even though they are quite small in the scheme of things, mainly in regards to size in the USA, but compared to carriers here they are relatively large. It’s a very good move by a carrier to try to uphold the experience set forth by Google for their OS and their own customers. If only some companies here in Australia would tune in and listen to their customer-base about skins and UI’s, we might not have this mis-match of software and hardware and everyone thinking they can do it better. One day this dream of mine and of many other people, may just come true… maybe. Do you prefer stock over skinned versions of Android?
