This is an open-ended question meant to spark a discussion. I own a nexus that is unlocked and rooted and I must admit the very first thing I do with a phone I buy is root it. I am one of those who get angry with big brother red (vzw) and oems for locking down phones. But with more people using smart phones for more and more things the threat of a security breach becomes even more widespread. Similar to pc, android has bloomed into an os that is available to people regardless of carrier. Unlike ios android is even available for budget restricted customers. The same exploit that can be used to root could potentially be used for malicious acts. So that begs the question: Are carriers looking to protect the majority from potential danger or are they just out to keep the minority from rooting.
My thought is that they are out to protect the majority while protecting its interests. There are a lot of smart phone customers who can barley figure out how to navigate through their device and you want them to recognize when an app is trying to access files. I can see granny or some one new to a smart phone hitting the allow option when an app requests for "permissions". We are the minority who know android so for us the red flag will go up where as to them they truly may have thought it was innocent especially when you download apps and it says apps have access to ______ .
I also think they are looking after their own interest because vzw could easily take the path of other carriers or have the oems take the htc approach where users can unlock the bootloader as long as they agree their warranty is voided. Carriers know why we root and it's to use software vzw has not "blessed", remove apps that vzw gets paid for, and install apps that vzw don't want us to install. So in other words big brother red wants to control the experience and partly because people are rooting their phones and taking it back to the store or getting angry because the device is not performing like it should. So I can understand at times them wanting to lock it down so time is not wasted dealing with a device that their employees are barely trained on that has been modified.
Vzw, though expensive, offers the best customer support and compared to the competition they can not be matched. But it is hard to support a device or software you do not know. So as a customer what would be a viable and fair solution.
My opinion: If a customer buys their device through vzw and sign up for their support they should not be allowed to root or unlock their device whatsoever. Vzw should not have to waste revenue trying to help a customer lost during hacking to get their device unbricked. If you buy your device from a 3rd party retailer and your warranty with the retailer covers rooting then as a customer I should be allowed to unlock my device through the oem. I should not have to pay full retail for the same device that I still have to go online to unlock. That policy from motorola is a joke and Google we know you can do better than that. At minimum pick up htc's playbook on how to deal with those wanting to root.
My thought is that they are out to protect the majority while protecting its interests. There are a lot of smart phone customers who can barley figure out how to navigate through their device and you want them to recognize when an app is trying to access files. I can see granny or some one new to a smart phone hitting the allow option when an app requests for "permissions". We are the minority who know android so for us the red flag will go up where as to them they truly may have thought it was innocent especially when you download apps and it says apps have access to ______ .
I also think they are looking after their own interest because vzw could easily take the path of other carriers or have the oems take the htc approach where users can unlock the bootloader as long as they agree their warranty is voided. Carriers know why we root and it's to use software vzw has not "blessed", remove apps that vzw gets paid for, and install apps that vzw don't want us to install. So in other words big brother red wants to control the experience and partly because people are rooting their phones and taking it back to the store or getting angry because the device is not performing like it should. So I can understand at times them wanting to lock it down so time is not wasted dealing with a device that their employees are barely trained on that has been modified.
Vzw, though expensive, offers the best customer support and compared to the competition they can not be matched. But it is hard to support a device or software you do not know. So as a customer what would be a viable and fair solution.
My opinion: If a customer buys their device through vzw and sign up for their support they should not be allowed to root or unlock their device whatsoever. Vzw should not have to waste revenue trying to help a customer lost during hacking to get their device unbricked. If you buy your device from a 3rd party retailer and your warranty with the retailer covers rooting then as a customer I should be allowed to unlock my device through the oem. I should not have to pay full retail for the same device that I still have to go online to unlock. That policy from motorola is a joke and Google we know you can do better than that. At minimum pick up htc's playbook on how to deal with those wanting to root.