Rom community may never be the same.

[pc747]

The Droid was a revolutionary device and many of the devs admitted to wanting to learn about roms because of the droid. As time goes on the droid continues to fade away. I remember going from being afraid to root to using sholesmodupdater. The rom community continued to expand and even evolve into a rom and theme developers. The community has been through its highs and lows. And despite your rom of choice it was amazing how one rom can tweak your device one way and another to something totally different. Because of the devs we were able to test new builds before they were released. I remember the 2.1 threads where the big thing was live wall papers, and users were able to enjoy those features while we waited for vzw/moto to finally release 2.1 to the public.
Now as droid owners approach the end of our contract the question is what device will take the place of the droid?
Or will there ever be a device like the droid again?
To that I say yes and no. We will not have one device that will bring in the development like the droid did. It would take a manufacturer releasing a true successor to the droid that allows for development. Because of issues with users thinking they damaged their device and sending them in and the market proven vulnerable to malware we are seeing manufacturers protect their interest by locking their devices down. Part of me understand their approach and another part of me resent them for not allowing us the ability to unlock the device after they stop supporting it.
The dev community influenced many changes some we are seeing implemented in newer phones, which is why I resent the manufacturers because the devs sparked innovation and now you are no longer allowing them to continue to be a part of the community with out being restricted.
The good thing that will come from this is that the droid has influenced many into developing and now we are seeing more phones with its own dev community. So in away it is a good thing because now users have a choice in devices they want to purchase and knowing there is a dev community to support the device. So no we are no longer a large dev community for one device but a larger community spread out on many devices. Hopefully we get another device like the droid but if we dont I still know that we will still have a way to mod our device thanks to the community and thanks to verizon, motorola, google, and the dev community for making the droid and making it the device that sparked a generation,

 

[Card]

Good post, insightful questions.

For me, I'm planning on sticking with Android OS. iOS, WebOS, and even the new Windows phones just don't do it for me (just my opinion, not trying to say the other mobile platforms are no good). With the rate that new phones are coming out, I can't even guess what phone I'll be getting when the time comes to replace. I was pretty excited about the Sony Ericcson Xperia Play, but now the hardware looks like it's going to be semi-outdated by the time it hits store shelves.

I think I'll definitely hold out for a dual-core phone, but try and re-sign a new contract before Verizon decides to go the route of pay-for-bandwidth plans like AT&T recently did. I suppose I'll just wait to see when the announcement is, and get the best Android phone I can before it gets enacted.

As for the questions of will there be a Rom/Mod community like that for the D1? I'm sure there will. As Android continues to expand it's userbase, more and more power users will want to access every last feature their phone is physically capable of.

 

[sgtguthrie]

Well said op... i agree completely. Not to turn this into a heavy debate because there are enough of those threads, but there are lots of d1 users moving to thunderbolt as well as some well known developers such as Slayher and maybe ChevyNo1. I think the tbolt community will flourish at least for a while. We'll see... i know as long as there is a phone with a cracked bootloader like the tbolt, i will never purchase one locked down like the dx or d2 and probably the Bionic from how it sounds...


Sent from my Droid running whatever ROM and Kernel I chose to use today...

 

[billyidle]

"Google Experience" phones such as the Nexus line, and the OG Droid will always exist. It would be nice if Google would give Verizon a plane ol Android phone, but stock Android minus bootloaders are still being made.

 

[pc747]

We need to convince vzw to bring in nexus devices. Allthe concerns we have about locked bootloaders and bloatware will be solved with that one device. I emailed vzw, because they have to respond to an email in24 hrs, my desire for a nexus device. There was enough interest for an iphone and vzw got it, if enough people begged for a nexus I would not see why we would not get it.