My problem with your argument, FoxKat, is that I keep hearing that so very few people even root their phones anymore that we rooters have no collective pull with the manufacturers and carriers. So which is it? Are there so few of us that do it at all that we have no influence with manufacturers and carriers or is there such a vast army of rooters that the minority of us who cause problems are so many that they are bringing mighty Big Red's network to its proverbial knees? I don't see how there can simultaneously be enough moron rooters to cause problems AND so few rooters period that we have no influence.
I think the real issue is that of control. Verizon wants absolute and total control over everything on their network, including their clients' devices. I don't think they have any moral right to dictate what people do with their own devices.
OK, I understand your point and also why you'd feel that way. Truth is there is a much smaller "army" of rooters and modders out there than there were perhaps at the height of this revolution, 2012-2014 would be my guess. Still there are a significant number even here, and all you have to do is visit sites like XDA to see that it's still alive and vibrant in many respects.
As for why Verizon would want their phones locked down as mentioned, I have to step back and ask that question of myself. How does Verizon benefit from locking phones down? Do they somehow get a "kick" out of "control[ing]" their customers? To have that opinion it seems one would have to view Verizon as a "person" with an ego and perhaps a sadistic mentality, rather than a "company" with engineers who know how these phones impact their network, board of directors who are responsible for managing the company for the best possible profitability and for the ultimate benefit of the shareholders, and that the motivation behind this so-called "control" has everything to do with keeping the network secure and running with as few problems as possible. Could it be that they somehow get more money from us if our phones are not rooted...absurd, I know (well, not really if you consider tethering or increased operating costs), but you see where I'm going with this. So then what is the real reason or reasons behind this?
We as consumers (mostly), don't know all that's involved in how these phones communicate over the network but given the extreme complexity, and with these being mobile communication devices given the constantly changing and incredible dynamics of the network it's easily conceivable that a modification of one phone (or a whole traunch of users who may adopt such modifications), could cause a disruption or disturbance of the operation of their network, even if only in one local cell site or if only for a fraction of the bandwidth. It's even more conceivable that it could cause a major interruption of service over a wide area. Remember, Verizon advertises themselves as "the most reliable" network.
I will say that MOST modifications do nothing with respect to the cellular communications portion of the phones' operation, but are mainly for more freedom to customize the user experience and enhance its functionality and capabilities, so any that are modifying the phone in a manner that could impart effects in communications are likely very few. Still, any service disruptions translate into troubleshooting support by highly skilled and highly paid technicians required to root out (no pun intended), the cause and make any changes they can put into effect to resolve the problem. This translates into reduced profits.
Another side to this that I have said before is technical support at the end-user level and I know that people have modified their phones, suffered some kind of technical issues and rather than giving consideration to the modifications as the cause they instead got on the phone and attempted to troubleshoot the problems with Verizon. Imagine the frustration the support reps experience when after spending what could be even an hour or more of troubleshooting finally discover the phone is operating on a modded version of the OS and that eventually it's determined to be the cause. That is time that they were being paid to provide "free" technical support at the expense of Verizon, lost revenue they can't possibly recover.
We can't dismiss the possibility that they are trying to further prevent people from circumventing the safeguards put in place to stop people from tethering their phones to laptops and such. Clearly the use of excessive data is an issue with them and we see the UDP plans being put under even greater pressure in the hopes of moving away from excessive data use. With a rooted phone, you can go in and change an "entitlement" value and suddenly your phone which before would actually check with Verizon's network to make sure you were paying the $30/month fee for Mobile Hotspot, will now completely bypass that and you can use it to provide unimpeded internet service to laptops, desktops, virtually any WIFI devices in the home or workplace that you decide you want service for but don't want to carry a separate plan for.
Sometimes we all have to step outside our own shoes for a moment and give some consideration to the feelings of others. How would we feel if it were our company and through mods our customers were afflicting us with greater expense and increased technical issues?
Finally let's not forget they MUST provide a reliable 911 service and I know for a fact that SOME of the modifications I've seen flush through the modding community actually prevented the phones from making 911 calls. I know that my OWN phone would stall and freeze, many times being unable to do anything for sometimes minutes at a time while running mashups of Android, and that it eventually caused me to have to go back to stock. You only have to search to quickly find people running "nightly releases" who complain of no cellular service, spotty service, call interruptions, and more. FORTUNATELY there were no reports I'm aware of where that inability resulted in harm to persons or property but with terrorism now in the forefront of the news and a plank of the election of our next president it's got to be a part of this consideration.
Imagine if a modded phone couldn't make a call during a terrorist attack and as a result more lives were lost than if they were able to reach first responders? Is any life OK to lose? It is not perhaps a "moral right" to dictate what people do with "their" phones, but instead it's a "moral obligation" to protect them from the consequences of unexpected failure.
From Cyanogenmod's own website;
"
CyanogenMod 9 - 10.2 build tags
CyanogenMod 9 through 10.2 were qualified with tags:
Experimental,
Nightly,
Release Candidate, and
Stable. The
Snapshot tag was added with the introduction of M builds in CyanogenMod 10.2. These tags were meant to indicate a build's suitability for general use.
- Nightly: usually generated every 24 hours, experimental, newest features, unstable
- Experimental: testing version requested by device maintainers to evaluate specific changes
- M Snapshot: milestone snapshot, more stable than a nightly but potentially some issues
- Release Candidate: last builds before stable release, few minor issues, mostly stable, and safe for daily use
- Stable: most stable version available, all or nearly all issues resolved"
In this example, someone running a "nightly" release (deemed "unstable"), or even a "release candidate" or "stable" version could easily suffer compete failure of the phone and if it happens at the most inopportune time it could result in loss of life. Notice it says ratings are to indicate a build's "suitability for GENERAL use"? I would bet if you asked him directly whether ANY of his versions were suitable for "EMERGENCY" use he would say no, and tell you that only an OEM version of the OS should be trusted to perform under all circumstances. And of course, if it doesn't, and you're running a modded version of the OS, and then had to sue them for compensation due to losses for its failure during a crisis you would most certainly lose.
Sorry, couldn't resist...