Moto explains why they locked the bootloader

[mflynn]

Im actually tired of loading custom roms and all that haha,

I'm not tired but I'm finding that the need for custom roms is less so. For instance my Nexus, has the ability to have different glowing notifications on the trackball. A nice feature to be sure, but the DX has no trackball.

Tethering appears in Froyo, another reason and so while the custom roms as various customizations they may not be as needed especially as google enhances android.

 

[hendrix]

I am a big fan of stock android (the little bit that Moto adds to it is fine). The only thing i need is root and wifi tether (I can live with wired for now).

 

[Darkseider]

My suggestion is to write a letter or email to Motorola showing your displeasure in their decision. I also strongly suggest, regardless of whether or not it is upgrade time or not, to NOT purchase the Droid X or any future Motorola products. For that matter make it a point to tell everyone you know that looks to you for tech advice to avoid the Droid X and Motorola products. Point them to products that are known to be open and available for root w/ an unencrypted boot loader even if they never intend to do anything with it. All companies, Motorola being no exception, listen when people vote with their wallets. Now is the time to make that statement otherwise we will never see a device as great as the original Droid ever come out from Motorola.

 

[hendrix]

My suggestion is to write a letter or email to Motorola showing your displeasure in their decision. I also strongly suggest, regardless of whether or not it is upgrade time or not, to NOT purchase the Droid X or any future Motorola products. For that matter make it a point to tell everyone you know that looks to you for tech advice to avoid the Droid X and Motorola products. Point them to products that are known to be open and available for root w/ an unencrypted boot loader even if they never intend to do anything with it. All companies, Motorola being no exception, listen when people vote with their wallets. Now is the time to make that statement otherwise we will never see a device as great as the original Droid ever come out from Motorola.

The problem is the fact that most people don't care about root. The majority just want a phone that works and motorola provides that.

 

[Darkseider]

My suggestion is to write a letter or email to Motorola showing your displeasure in their decision. I also strongly suggest, regardless of whether or not it is upgrade time or not, to NOT purchase the Droid X or any future Motorola products. For that matter make it a point to tell everyone you know that looks to you for tech advice to avoid the Droid X and Motorola products. Point them to products that are known to be open and available for root w/ an unencrypted boot loader even if they never intend to do anything with it. All companies, Motorola being no exception, listen when people vote with their wallets. Now is the time to make that statement otherwise we will never see a device as great as the original Droid ever come out from Motorola.

The problem is the fact that most people don't care about root. The majority just want a phone that works and motorola provides that.

It has nothing to do with caring about root. I don't care if they EVER root or load a custom ROM. Point them to another device. Hell tell them to get a freakin iPhone. I don't care but take the business away from Motorola. The only way any company will listen is when their bottom line is hurt and not until then.

 

[hendrix]

My point is that you will never take enough business away from Moto to matter just by telling someone, "You can't root this device."

 

[Darkseider]

My point is that you will never take enough business away from Moto to matter just by telling someone, "You can't root this device."

Apparently you just don't get it. This is another reason why Motorola will continue down this path. Make your voice heard and your opinion known to ANYONE that will listen, including Motorola. Don't buy their shiny toy and encourage others to avoid it as well.

 

[garath]

My point is that you will never take enough business away from Moto to matter just by telling someone, "You can't root this device."

Apparently you just don't get it. This is another reason why Motorola will continue down this path. Make your voice heard and your opinion known to ANYONE that will listen, including Motorola. Don't buy their shiny toy and encourage others to avoid it as well.

Unfortunately it's a vocal minority. I am willing to bet the average consumer doesn't care one lick if you can flash custom ROMs or not. Moto is building a great phone first and foremost with a ton of great community apps that work even without root access.

I think it's safe to say that starting a campaign of "boycott the phone" won't hurt their bottom line. Even among the phone enthusiasts that will actually hear the message, I sincerely doubt more than a small portion will not buy such a good phone for lack of custom ROMs.

 

[Mule65]

Reading between the lines of "business factors", third party entities are paying for their apps to permanently reside on these units.

PS: This is old news from last February.

 

[steven.rn]

My suggestion is to write a letter or email to Motorola showing your displeasure in their decision. I also strongly suggest, regardless of whether or not it is upgrade time or not, to NOT purchase the Droid X or any future Motorola products. For that matter make it a point to tell everyone you know that looks to you for tech advice to avoid the Droid X and Motorola products. Point them to products that are known to be open and available for root w/ an unencrypted boot loader even if they never intend to do anything with it. All companies, Motorola being no exception, listen when people vote with their wallets. Now is the time to make that statement otherwise we will never see a device as great as the original Droid ever come out from Motorola.

They should have thought with their OWN wallets.... Per your suggestion, here is my post at the motorola forums:
************************************************************

I'm not a hotshot kid. I'm mid-50's, have years of corporate background. I hope you take a moment to read this and perhaps comment.

Building the method to brick the phone into the HARDWARE via SOFTWARE is a recipe for disaster.

It only takes ONE hacker ONE success with a widespread trojan to brick multiple thousands, or even tens of thousands of phones, in short order. Didn't you watch Apple stock dive over an antenna problem? You couldn't even begin to calculate the stock loss to Motorola/VZW if that scenario ever comes to pass.

Haven't you thought of the headlines when folks DO start bricking phones and complaining? Let's say 200 casual users brick the phones by Efuse. Once the headlines start popping up in GOOGLE NEWS / SCI TECH like the antenna worries/calls for Iphone recalls/Consumer reports start popping up, and they WILL get nagging.... kiss Motorola Momentum goodbye.

Or perhaps, one disgruntled engineer manages to slip something into a OTA update. I can't imagine the atmosphere in the Dev lab there. They have got to be nervously watching each other and never quite trusting each other not to deep six the company- and cost them their jobs as market share plunges.

I used to work for Cadillac Division of GM Corp. in marketing. Ask me what a bad model can do for your market share.

There were SO many ways around this. Efuse may prove your undoing. You're not dealing with kids with Xboxes.

Yep. I'll still get a Droid X. Love the screen. But if any of this comes to pass, I know I'll be buying someone elses phone next year, and the subsequent 15 or 20 years after that.

I hope it doesn't happen. Just like the Motorola 68000 chip deserved so much more than it got, I fear you may have shot yourself in the foot again. Ask the boys around Motorola who have been there for a long time how quickly momentum can be lost over perceived issues and values. Learn from your past. Protect your stock value, and the employees stock buy-in programs.

Or not.

Ultimately, those core issues to you will be of no consequence to the end user.

Please reconsider how to "protect" us in a different way. Amen.

 

[FreyGrimrod]

Wait this means I won't be able to delete certain apps or at least make them totally unseen by me? I'll always have some crapware facebook/twitter/blockbuster app in the way in my drawer? Could someone please confirm?

If this is the case I'll pass...

 

[sin vicious]

I understand the pain.. but at the end its all business

Folks,

I understand the whole "open platform" thing and to an extent android has provided that ability to developers in the nexus 1. But keep in mind that this is a business and custom roms can at times also mean ripping other software makers ideas and implementing them on other devices. While thats not the case all the time, the risk posed may be worth it to encrypt. If you make it less appealing for hardware makers to sell realestate space on their phones..(because it can be removed) we will see less phones which equals less innovation. I understand that opening it up my spur more sales, but it actually might not be enough to offset the moneys gained by selling relaestate space on the phone. This may also pay off for us by giving more incentive to create better home replacement$ and launcher$... Developers should be paid for the hardwork and not have to worry about asking for donations.

 

[RW-1]

Got to agree here, too many lemmings who wouldn't know about loading customized ROM's or rooting to begin with to care.

Now to be honest, I rooted to load 2.2, and would like the capability to load newer OS's as they are leaked. I agree though that having the ability to make custom ROM's with themes is excellent and should be encouraged, not quelled by moto.

Seems to me that they should be taking a business decision and allowing it, as many devs out there turn out a better product than they do - they are not limited to the hoops the manuf has to jump through.

I'm 46 and have seen a lot too...

As to hundreds of lemmings bricking phones - BS. First off, anything that might come down the pike in that reguard will be found out very quickly, and mods/admins pull those download links fast, the hacking community polices itself VERY well in this reguard. There were a few 2.1 ROM's out there that were suspicious, and you should have seen the response ...

more on lemmings bricking - first off, and I know there will be support for this from the rescue squad - 99% of the time the unit is NOT bricked. It takes a lot to truly brick a phone, many times it is something that can be undone. You say they will be nagging .. whom? They are doing something unsupported by the manufacturer right? They will be nagging US,not moto. Please show me a history of news coverage from people bricking their PC's from failed BIOS updates, and there have been PLENTY of them ...

the truth is, out of 100% lemmings, likely about 10% might think about modding, out of that another 5% actually try and go further. the rest just stay stock.

IF the red headed stepchild of the 2Ghz vaporware unit comes out and is locked down, but can be rooted, I likely will get it as I can still add apps I want. But I'll revisit that when the time comes.

 

[Darkseider]

My suggestion is to write a letter or email to Motorola showing your displeasure in their decision. I also strongly suggest, regardless of whether or not it is upgrade time or not, to NOT purchase the Droid X or any future Motorola products. For that matter make it a point to tell everyone you know that looks to you for tech advice to avoid the Droid X and Motorola products. Point them to products that are known to be open and available for root w/ an unencrypted boot loader even if they never intend to do anything with it. All companies, Motorola being no exception, listen when people vote with their wallets. Now is the time to make that statement otherwise we will never see a device as great as the original Droid ever come out from Motorola.

They should have thought with their OWN wallets.... Per your suggestion, here is my post at the motorola forums:
************************************************************

I'm not a hotshot kid. I'm mid-50's, have years of corporate background. I hope you take a moment to read this and perhaps comment.

Building the method to brick the phone into the HARDWARE via SOFTWARE is a recipe for disaster.

It only takes ONE hacker ONE success with a widespread trojan to brick multiple thousands, or even tens of thousands of phones, in short order. Didn't you watch Apple stock dive over an antenna problem? You couldn't even begin to calculate the stock loss to Motorola/VZW if that scenario ever comes to pass.

Haven't you thought of the headlines when folks DO start bricking phones and complaining? Let's say 200 casual users brick the phones by Efuse. Once the headlines start popping up in GOOGLE NEWS / SCI TECH like the antenna worries/calls for Iphone recalls/Consumer reports start popping up, and they WILL get nagging.... kiss Motorola Momentum goodbye.

Or perhaps, one disgruntled engineer manages to slip something into a OTA update. I can't imagine the atmosphere in the Dev lab there. They have got to be nervously watching each other and never quite trusting each other not to deep six the company- and cost them their jobs as market share plunges.

I used to work for Cadillac Division of GM Corp. in marketing. Ask me what a bad model can do for your market share.

There were SO many ways around this. Efuse may prove your undoing. You're not dealing with kids with Xboxes.

Yep. I'll still get a Droid X. Love the screen. But if any of this comes to pass, I know I'll be buying someone elses phone next year, and the subsequent 15 or 20 years after that.

I hope it doesn't happen. Just like the Motorola 68000 chip deserved so much more than it got, I fear you may have shot yourself in the foot again. Ask the boys around Motorola who have been there for a long time how quickly momentum can be lost over perceived issues and values. Learn from your past. Protect your stock value, and the employees stock buy-in programs.

Or not.

Ultimately, those core issues to you will be of no consequence to the end user.

Please reconsider how to "protect" us in a different way. Amen.

Thank you for understanding that it isn't about rooting or custom ROMs but the ability to if you, the consumer and owner of said device, choose to. With the encrypted boot loader and the Efuse this essentially turns an Android into an iPhone. It is disgusting that Motorola has chosen this path with such an open and robust operating system.

 

[Darkseider]

Folks,

I understand the whole "open platform" thing and to an extent android has provided that ability to developers in the nexus 1. But keep in mind that this is a business and custom roms can at times also mean ripping other software makers ideas and implementing them on other devices. While thats not the case all the time, the risk posed may be worth it to encrypt. If you make it less appealing for hardware makers to sell realestate space on their phones..(because it can be removed) we will see less phones which equals less innovation. I understand that opening it up my spur more sales, but it actually might not be enough to offset the moneys gained by selling relaestate space on the phone. This may also pay off for us by giving more incentive to create better home replacement$ and launcher$... Developers should be paid for the hardwork and not have to worry about asking for donations.

Point is once the phone is sold they get their money. If a developer puts an app on a phone, take my wifes Backflip for instance, there are apps that are on there that cannot be removed. Every one of those apps my wife doesn't use and *****es because she can't remove them. Why should I, the consumer, be dictated as to what I can and cannot do or have on my device? The same device I spent MY money on and now own in full. It is no different than a PC manufacturer telling you you can't switch operating systems or run programs made by Activision/Blizzard. It is yours to do with what you want regardless if you ever do. To deny the consumer this is no different than telling them that the device they just paid for is not owned but rather the monies spent a "right to use" rather than a "right to own".