Unfortunately a big part of having a truly working phone is the long tail of one-off apps. City-specific rideshares and bus apps, easy airline boarding, some new chat app that your friends started using.
I was a Lumia Windows Phone user, and I loved the OS, and I'm not at all some avid app user on the phone (I don't like mobile games, I don't install random apps that are just a packaged web site). Still, every time I got out of a well-worn bubble, the phone felt second-class. I couldn't order a cab, couldn't scan that coupon, I couldn't install that dating app, etc etc. I used that phone for 3 or 4 years until the battery gave out or whatever, but moving to iOS and Android felt so empowering.
I can only imagine the experience on Linux, without any corporate pushing to get your app on their phone, would be much worse.
I was a Lumia Windows Phone user, and I loved the OS, and I'm not at all some avid app user on the phone (I don't like mobile games, I don't install random apps that are just a packaged web site). Still, every time I got out of a well-worn bubble, the phone felt second-class. I couldn't order a cab, couldn't scan that coupon, I couldn't install that dating app, etc etc. I used that phone for 3 or 4 years until the battery gave out or whatever, but moving to iOS and Android felt so empowering.
I can only imagine the experience on Linux, without any corporate pushing to get your app on their phone, would be much worse.