Virgin Mobile Prefers Stock Android on All of Their Phones, We Wish Other Carriers Would Take Note

I know this has nothing to do with Verizon, but we just wanted to point out how awesome it is as we head into the weekend.  Remember yesterday’s post that we got all excited over which had to do with the Motorola Triumph as a surprisingly stock Android device headed to Virgin Mobile?  Apparently stock/vanilla Android is the standard on Virgin for a number of reasons:  consistency, freedom to customize and a love for the true Android experience.

In an email to our friends at PCMag (whom we’re still trying to forgive for this piece), Virgin had this to say:

“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,” a Virgin spokesperson said.

They might be a small carrier when compared to Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, but man do I wish their CEO would sit down and have a conversation with some of those other big mobile leaders after hearing this news.  Can you imagine a world that actually let Android be Android?  Mmmm.

All we’ve ever asked for is a choice from these carriers that demand manufacturer skins be preloaded.  And I don’t mean a choice of which device has a certain skin, I’m talking about the option to choose whether or not our device loads up stock or something else on that first boot up.  We know that one of the arguments for these skins is to differentiate, but differentiating doesn’t mean funneling.  When I buy a device at full retail price, you should let me decide what goes on that puppy.  Ask me when I buy it if I want it to be stock or skinned – how hard is that?

When you walk into a Best Buy to purchase a PC, they’ll ask you if you want the version with all the preloaded crapware on there or if you want a 100% clean version.  They may charge you another $20 or so for the clean version, but at least it’s an option.  They understand that not all consumers are the same and give them choices.  Why can’t mobile carriers do the same thing?  /end rant.

Via:  PCMag