Regarding the white list of 3rd-party apps on M6/M9
Since the launch of FiiO M6/M9 portable player, their appearance, function, performance, sound quality, and price have been favored by consumers. At the same time, as the current few Android players that can install some 3rd-party streaming music apps within $300.00USD, we also received a lot of feedback about 3rd-party apps. Therefore, we would like to reply to these questions that you care about.
Both M6 and M9 are based on the Samsung Exynos 7270 master chip, running a highly customized Android 7.0 system.
The Exynos 7270 is a highly integrated chip that includes two A53 cores running at 1.0G and uses a POP on-chip stereo package to integrate a 768MB RAM and a 4G FLASH chip into one chip. And you can't expand the memory by means of an external chip.
The main purpose of using this chip is to find a master chip with sufficient performance, low power consumption and small size. As for the ability to support smart operating systems, whether it is possible to access the Internet or run various 3rd-party apps smoothly is not a primary consideration. Because the master chips that can do this at present, regardless of the development cycle and investment, their volume, power consumption and cost are much higher than Exynos 7270, so you can also see that there is not other brand making similar products at this price, except FiiO.
Therefore, the first limitation is that the system performance of the M6/M9 does not support a true multitasking operating environment. Secondly, M6/M9 does not support some apps which require a large amount of running memory or enough fast speed of master chip. Finally, as the positioning of the M6/M9, we are careful not to exaggerate its performance and ability to support for 3rd-party apps in terms of publicity or recommendations.
Here is our replied to some frequently asked questions:
1. Do you just prefer to promote your own FiiO Music but not open 3rd-party apps?
A: FiiO is a profitable brand completely based on our own hardware development, production and sales. FiiO Music app is free of charge, and the integrated FiiO Music on M6/M9 is completely different from the one on the application market. Also, both M6 / M9 can support a number of other 3rd-party apps, so this guess is untenable.
2. How do you think about which 3rd-party app can be whitelisted?
A: Firstly, the 3rd-party app can basically run smoothly and the function is normal. Secondly, the 3rd-party app will not start the service in the background after exiting, otherwise it will slow down the system operation. Lastly, the 3rd-party app should be the mainstream media or tool application.
3. Why some streaming media apps such as Apple Music that meet the above conditions still can not be installed?
A: At present, Apple Music can’t log in to the account after installation. This issue with the Samsung platform has already been submitted to Samsung company for processing. Once it is solved, Apple music app will be added to the white list. In addition, the current white list has been consulted with agents in various countries. If there is any omission, please tell us.
4. Why do you only consider mainstream streaming media or tool app?
A: Because if you want to add the certain app to the white list, we need to do a lot of tests to avoid program crashes or some bugs that affect usage. At the same time, whether an APP can run smoothly on the M6/M9, different users have different evaluations on it. If we add one 3rd-party app to the white list, it means we need to be responsible for the normal operation. Therefore, because of the limited resource investment, we can't do this. Please also understand that from the sales point of view, we clearly know that if the product has more features, it will be more conducive to sales. If we didn't consider the cost of the company, we were certainly more willing to support more 3rd-party apps.
5. Is the 3rd-party app on the white list authorized?
A: The white list is just a mechanism that allows 3rd-party apps to be installed on the M6/M9. All pre-installed 3rd-party apps are authorized, but whether others are authorized or not has nothing to do with FiiO.
6. What mechanism is used to verify the white list?
A: It is through whether the "package name" of the apk file is in the white list or not to verify the installation.
7. Why do the M6/M9 or other FiiO Android players not support Audible playback?
A: All audible files are encrypted copyright protection, and are currently not open to 3rd-party applications and decoding, so they only can be played by it's own Audible app. At present, the sound is not normal if running Audible app on M6/M9 after our test, and we are still working on it.
Finally, the Exynos7270 used in the M6/M7/M9 has been discontinued, although we already purchased some inventory chips based on our own forecasts before that. To be honest, the price of Exynos7270 is much higher than when we first planned the M7, and the market is changing so fast now, so we dare not to reserve too many chips. Therefore, we hope you can carefully consider and choose the product according to your own needs. We do not want you to have too many expectations for the functions of M6/M7/M9 or later upgrades, and we cannot promise that there will be more functions to be added. In this way, you won't regret purchasing the M6/M7/M9, just because that you have too many expectations on them.
At the same time, please understand that due to the hardware resource limitations, M6/M7/M9 is not an Android system that is positioned to be open.
