[marssaxman]

Hey, I'm one of that 25%! I have a Galaxy Nexus which reads but cannot send email, reads and writes SMS, and which gives me a tiny little sliver of a peephole into the web. I run no apps because I am not willing to put any Google account credentials into the device, and for reasons I cannot comprehend, even free apps require you to go through Google Play.

All of which is to say, I'd love to run a smartphone with no ties to one of the big tech companies and their proprietary sandboxes. I'd install apps if I didn't have to deal with some proprietary app store which requires a login just to download free stuff. A smartphone might be a cool thing to have - but not if it's tied to Apple, Google, or Microsoft.

[icesoldier]

Have you looked into F-Droid? It's a directory of free-software Android apps that doesn't require a sign-in to use. I watched my friend use it (iPhone user here) and it looked like once you load the APK from their site, you're good to go.

[marssaxman]

Never heard of it. Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check it out.