My friend had to install the APK because the Google store was complaining that his phone doesn't have a gyroscope (he plays it with AR off, anyway). I wonder how it will affect him....

Anyone notice the articles saying Pokemon Go had a 79%+ drop in users?

That is 2 in every 10 are still playing it... I don't believe that at all, from my observations playing it I would wager that the number of people "actively" playing the game is closer to 5% what it started out as not 21%

As I said in the PoGo official thread the new buddy system will take someone walking 375 KM to get enough candies to evolve their Starter pokemon into it's final evolution, during that time it can never be left as a Gym defender ever... so yeah anyone who had stopped playing the game because it would a chore now as an exciting new feature which means they can see a new pokemon if they literally walk the complete width of the country I live in lol. Such a great enjoyable game.