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Remember that whole locked/signed/encrypted bootloader fiasco that’s been flying around the internets in regards to HTC’s upcoming Sensation and Evo 3D? This has lead a very vocal few to completely denounce the Taiwanese company and even incite a mass exodus onto other devices. Specifically, those made by LG who is now being called “the new HTC” by some in the Android community.
Well, if you’re friends with HTC on Facebook, they updated their status today to address this issue. Although, it may not sound like much, its at least an awknowledgement that they are in fact, listening to their customers’ feedback. Of course, we all know doing something about it is another story.
Thanks so much for providing feedback, we hear your concerns. Your satisfaction is a top priority for us and we’re working hard to ensure you have great experiences with our phones. We’re reviewing the issue and our policy around bootloaders and will provide more information soon. Thank you for your interest, support and willingness to share your feedback.
Last time I checked, it was the carriers and their iron fists coming down on OEM’s and forcing them to lock up their phones (and keep you from unauthorized tethering). And last time I checked, the Android modding community only accounted for about 2% of total Android devices sold. Pretty small number.
So what do you guys think? Could this be nothing more than a marketing strategy by HTC to calm down and pacify the Android modding community before the release of their 2 biggest handsets this year? Does HTC locking down their bootloaders affect your decision at all to buy one of their upcoming devices?
Oh – and if you feel like making a greater impact, there’s even a petition floating around if you think it will make a difference. Also, feel free to “like” their statement on Facebook. At least we know HTC is listening… right?
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
[Via HTC on Facebook]
First off, you are just posting on this since htc made a statement. Why not be apart of the solution by putting up an article saying people are freaking out and not buying htc anymore. You really had to wait for htc to make a statement. You should have been helping everyone by posting links to their facebook page, twitter page and to groubal. Thanks for help out
Hatters gonna hat. (intention misspelling before I get flamed. I’ve been on Engadget too much these days. They actually post on weekends *cough*)
No news on weekends
In all fairness, people being angry on the internet is par for the course, not news. If Phandroid (or any other source for that matter) made posts in regards to every complaint members of the community had, they’d never have time for real news. Last time I checked, the Phandroid front page was for news and information, not activism.
As someone who doesn’t follow HTC’s twitter or Facebook, I’d like to give an actual thanks for posting this. Angry community members aren’t news (no matter how justified their complaints), but a company speaking out to address these issues is. Even if it’s likely only appeasement.
Well the title does say “Can WE make a difference?”. That implies that Phandroid as an entity has a vested interest in this issue.
Remember that guy who said that emailing them was a fruitless effort? Yeah, wrong.
I emailed them and so should everyone else who loves xda and custom roms.
Ill believe it when I see it. Statements don’t get me to spend money, so unless it ships unlocked I wont be buying. It’s honestly that simple.
I agree. All I was trying to say is strong activism works. I certainly won’t consider buying any encrypted HTC devices either!
It’s a start. Everyone post on their facebook page. Flood the hell out of it. Maybe they will listen, who knows…
They can say all they want, but until they actually unlock the bootloader I’ll assume they are like the Honey Badger…
Honey Badger don’t care. ;) Luv for the Honey Badger.
Motorola: Hey! You’re making us look bad!
They already made the same exact statement. A long time ago.
If it’s the carriers, why are Samsung selling the Galaxy S II in Europe with an unlocked bootloader while HTC are selling the Sensation there with a locked one?
US carriers are dickbags. Especially with this shit.
the other 98% will be affected when their devices are abandoned/orphaned. sure, that’s at about the same time your contract expires and you want a new phone but if you want to go contract-free for a while or pass the device along to someone else, you’re left with a device doomed to obsolescence.
That makes no sense. You mean to tell me that every device that is abondened by manufacturer is useless? Just because you dont have the latest update on a device does not make it obsolete.
An “Update” does not matter, support does, continuing your device’s longevity is much better than just dropping it like Brittany Spears does with her kids. I would love to get the fullest bang for my buck.
Left feedback for HTC in many places. Also signed the Groubal petition which is over 4000 signatures now.Frankly, I am surprised HTC responded at all. Their Facebook page is getting wrecked though.
Doesn’t defer me one bit from buying the Evo 3D when it comes out. Honestly? I could care less about rooting a phone. Makes it more prone to bricking or being more glitchy early on. Although I do not like the bloatware Sprint loads onto their phones, I can deal with it.
No, it doesn’t.
If an Android phone won’t run Cyanogen, then it’s worthless.
Nah, if an Android phone doesn’t turn on then it’s worthless. Cynogen is great but it doesn’t make or break the phone.
It’s called recovery, dude. And I think that rooting can indeed make a phone; I have a rooted Dinc, my mom has an unrooted Dinc, and mine not only has twice at least twice the battery life but my kernel also lets me charge it from zero to full in about an hour. Extremely useful things like turning wifi/wireless or a flashlight off and on can be added to the windowshade on CM for instant access, not so much with Sense. Why?
We wouldn’t need CM if the manufacturers would get their sh*t together and make a decent interface. Instead they try to make everything as clunky and crippled as possible. This is like being told that Windows 8 will be identical to Mac OS circa 1993 and I will be forced to use it on every new computer I build.
That said, if I had never tried it in the first place, I probably wouldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.
Cyanogen offers good extra features and a solid upgrade path. Worthless might be an exaggeration, but it’s a must have feature on any of my phones.
I have a rather antiquated (in “tech years”) Samsung Moment from Sprint. Sprint/Samsung stopped support after it got 2.1. Thanks to root and the devs at SDX, I have an unsupported 2.2 running better than any ROM, stock or otherwise, on 2.1. Is it possible to brick your phone? Sure. But is it likely? Not if you have at least a general idea of what you’re doing. I’ve had 2 other Moments, and neither of them were replaced because they were bricked. You’d have to do some incredibly screwy stuff to brick a phone, such as putting a rom for one device, on a completely different one.
I am with you. I’ve played around with rooted vs. non-rooted phones of the same type, and the benefits are a little exagerated, IMO. Better battery life seems to be the best selling point. I also agree about the bloatware. It seems to be a similar issue as got Microsoft in trouble several years ago, when they were sued for the inability to remove IE from Windows. I feel like somebody industrious enough ought to be able to pull off a similar lawsuit against the telecoms over being able to remove bloatware.
If you’re phone can be rooted (with S-OFF), you’ll be able to get Ice Cream Sandwich soon after it’s released rather than waiting for HTC (CyanogenMod). Load a stock HTC Ice Cream ROM rather than waiting for Sprint. You’ll be able reformat to EXT4 which improves performance considerably. Much better battery life is a given. Run great programs like Titanium Backup. The list goes on.
More prone to bricking? You don’t really believe that bullshit do you. I know of literally one person ever that has bricked from rooting. As opposed to the hundreds of evo’s that just crapped out after a week while running the stock that it was released with. People need to know the facts bef.ore they make such ignorant unfounded statements.
If you know how to read and have even the slightest amount of common sense then you wont brick your device. But maybe your post comes from experience?
Either way sucks to be you I will enjoy the latest and greatest and push my phones as far as I can as I have with my past three android devices over the past couple years. I havent bricked one yet and dont plan on it unless I get to feeling really experimental with a device I on longer use.
Bottomline… In life things change htc has done right by android for many years it’s time to support htc now. I will be purchasing my Htc Evo 3d REGARDLESS
Fuck you Yarell ! That’s a dumb ass post and another reason no one likes you.
I was very excited for the evo 3d as well but wont put my cash in the hands of someone looking to lock down my device… To bad some people are to week to stand up for what they deserve. Oh well though the next nexus will have to be what I buy.
HTC could put their logo on a piece of dog shit and call it an Evo and you’d still buy it and praise it for being the greatest thing ever. That’s why you have zero credibility.
Go ahead and buy the damn thing. But it won’t RULE ANDROID! It’ll just be another backwater gimmicky phone that nobody will care about.
I still say LG could have essentially cornered the Android smartphone market by only releasing vanilla android devices. Not only that, but i’m sure they would have saved a decent amount on r&d. In the world of skinned android devices, a manufacturer could differentiate themselves by simply leaving the OS alone.
I wouldnt buy one with a locked bootloader, even if it was really cheap. Messing around with the phone is what makes it fun.
Its crap like this that stops me from buying another Android handset, maybe its too late, im close to being sold on the Meego/WebOS train.
that’s just pr code for “when marketshare of sony ericsson starts closing in on ours, then we’ll reconsider and maybe even follow their propaganda.”
Htc will only listen to sales figures..
Walk with you next purchuse been something else but HTC..
But if its only 2% that will walk i think you got buckleys of getting their minds changed!
my 2cents worth..
I’m a developer and I like to tinker. Not only that, I like to think the device I pay good money for is MY device to do with as I please. My first two Android devices were HTC and my next was going to be the Sensation, but I quickly decided on the G2x when I read about the new bootloader policy.
I’ve bought HTC devices exclusively for almost a decade, because they allow are so modder friendly.
I’ve owned the Nexus One, HTC Hero,HTC Touch Pro, i-mate JASJAR, Siemens SX66 along with some HTC built Treo’s.
I’ve been waiting to buy an EVO 3D. Not anymore.
Honestly, hit them where it hurts. Drown them in bad user reviews on Cnet, Amazon, etc.
All I can say is I’m glad I held off on pre-ordering this phone. I’ve been looking forward to the EVO 3D to replace my Nexus One since it was announced, DESPITE the fact that I love the benefits of having a Nexus…. looks like I’ll be either holding out for the next nexus unless some other decent UNLOCKED tegra 2 device comes around.
My next phone will be an Android and, like my current Incredible, I would very much like it to be HTC. Although if they continue to lock bootloaders it will effect my decision I can’t honestly say that it would make or break my decision.
Yes it’s fun to tinker with phones and I love Cynogen but there’s something about HTC that draws me back, the build quality, the gorgeous sense UI, the timely updates. I want an HTC phone and I want an unlocked bootloader and I would love to have both but when it comes down to it I want an HTC phone more.
I think their 2% is totally off. Me? I have a Motorola Droid (have for nearly 2 years now) and don’t have it rooted. Don’t care to have it rooted. I’m not going to root it but I like to have the OPTION of doing so even if i never have the intention to do so. I’m coming up to the end of my contract mid August and this and the Bionic were the 2 in the running. Now, it’s down to Bionic or, well, something else, i’m not sure now.
The thing is, I had no intention of rooting this phone. I don’t care to have it rooted. Rooting it would give me nothing that I want/need but I don’t like my hand being forced. What if later I WANT to root it, then I cant? It’s MY phone I should be able to toss it into a wood chipper if I damn well please. They’re not going to reverse their stance on this. They are paying lip service to ride out the shit wave. They know they’ll lose some sales but not enough to care. It’s a small price to pay to be on friendly terms with the Service Providers that are really the ones who want this shit locked down.
A good example a rooted HTC EVO can do full Hdmi mirroring, without root it can only mirror, pictures and video gallery, doesn’t sound too attractive.
It sucks that consumers aren’t powerful enough to get what they want anymore. I still won’t be bothering to recommend their phones to my friends/family anymore. Just like Motorola. If i want a locked up phone, I’ll just buy an Iphone.
I’ll be picking up the HTC Sensation. I’ve rooted my Android devices in the past, but never cared for it, and I still don’t. I’ll be perfectly happy with my HTC Sensation, locked bootloader or not.
htc heads is getting too big, they will not do anything and continue to lock their devices bootloader.
Yeah, a locked bootloader would definitely be a deal-breaker. If only we could go back to the days of dev-friendly phones like the G1…
“And last time I checked, the Android modding community only accounted for about 2% of total Android devices sold”
How on earth could you measure that? How does anyone know if I have a rooted phone or not? That statistic is completely made up.
marketing ploy. hacking community will fall for it and then get angry and make another petition after the new HTC devices are released.
It does make a difference to me. I’ll be waiting for LG’s Nexus 3 (N3xus lol) to replace my EVO, because of this. Probably a better decision anyways. I’m very disappointed HTC. Very disappointed.
Agreed hopefully Sprint with get the N3xus, I have to stick with Sprint and I do not want a Samsung phone or an encrypted Evo.
“Last time I checked, it was the carriers and their iron fists coming down on OEM’s and forcing them to lock up their phones”
Which is why the unbranded european phones are locked. Riiiiiggghhht.
I disagree that those who root are account for a small portion of the overall ownership of Android devices. I say we account for many, many more than our own devices. I know for a fact that my advice as my office’s IT person means I’ve likely accounted through advice given for at least 10 other people deciding to buy Android phones. Rooters are the early adopters, the folks that do the research, and influence others, and if the manufacturers and carriers don’t understand that, it will literally be their loss. Hit ’em where it hurts I say, reduce their shareholder’s value!
EXACTLY. Phone geeks account for a small portion of sales personally, but who does everyone go to for buying advice? There was a story here on that a while back.
Let the executives know, stop the lock
[email protected] Chairman
[email protected] Chief Marketing Officer, HTC Corporation
[email protected] Senior Public Relations Manager at HTC 425-679-5328
[email protected] COO of HTC
[email protected] Board Member of HTC
[email protected] CEO
[email protected] Chief Innovation Officer
Brent Groome, Chief Executive-Customer Operations, at 843-369-8393 or [email protected]
the point is moot. rooting your phone is at best “cool” judging by most of the comments here. its cool, not necessary. i rooted my G1 because it was obsolete, my G2 will stand the test of time till the inevitable G3 comes out. I will stick with HTC as long as I can, they make quality hardware and thats why i love them. to not buy a phone because u cant root it is, sorry to say ….childish.
Agreed rooting is overrated…cool to mess around but locked bootloader does not come to mind when buying a phone…phones coming out now won’t need a speed bump.
No you’re wrong, it is not childish to want to root MY phone.
I have the Desire Z (Euro version of the G2, as I’m sure you know) and it ran like a dog, compared to how it now runs with a CM7 based rom. It now has better battery life, doesn’t have Sense sucking up all my RAM, and is infinitely more customisable. Little things like being able to adjust the keyboard backlights – they never used to light up reliably in dim situations making it difficult to use the keyboard. Now I have amended the values that control it so they light ALL the time. I can back up my phone fully, which is not possible without root.
I’ve got rid of the diabolical HTC browser which only allows 4 tabs open at a time (and with Sense raping your phone’s resources, those pages fell out of RAM pretty quickly anyway, causing constant page reloads).
In all honesty this phone was mainly purchased for the keyboard, but I was not at all impressed with the software on it. So why shouldn’t I be able to put something better on there? Sorry, that’s not childish, that’s called choice.
As for your G2 standing the the test of time til G3 – well I guess that depends on what you want to do with your phone. I recently played with an SGS2, and let me tell you that phone makes my phone feel like it’s a broke down POS at just 6mths old. The web browsing was in a different league, and with many more sites using lots of flash and javascript, I think you’ll find your G2 becomes obsolete and barely useable for some stuff before you realise it. There are many games that just laugh at the specs we have as standard, and are unplayable (freezing, slowdowns) without overclocking.
With root I have the option to tweak and squeeze every last ounce of performance out of the thing for as long as possible. Don’t root and you’ll just be buying a new phone all the sooner. That’s if you can find one with a keyboard.
You can go ahead and enjoy your phone on the standard configuration, but I would feel like I was mugging myself off if I were you.
im sure its your choice but i would never buy a phone with the name SAMSUNG on it, just personal preference. As for my G2, ill wait for my gingerbread update which is supposed to improve a number of things, including battery life. As long as i dont see any lag, i dont see why i wouldnt keep it on standard till i can upgrade next year…i have 185 apps with several graphics hogs, no lag, nothing bad…i may try out a new launcher from the market tho….
And that’s fine, up until very recently I would not have considered buying a Samsung because of their practice of abandoning phones quickly. Now it seems they MAY be sorting their act out, and as one of the few manufacturers that DON’T encrypt their bootloader signatures I think they may start to get more developer support.
At the end of the day it’s horses for courses, if you’re happy using your phone the way it is then fine. Personally, I would not consider a phone that I can’t root – and many others feel the same way. Hence the backlash against HTC, who modders have supported to the hilt, due to their previously modder-friendly phones. You take away that benefit and then you have to compete on the strength of your software and update policy (which from HTC is usually pretty decent) and hardware (which from HTC has been lacking a bit in recent times, with weak-sauce Qualcomm chips, crappy cameras, crappy speakers and nothing-special screens).
Oh and btw, while you wait for your Gingerbread update, I’ve been running a Gingerbread ROM for literally months. Another reason I want my phone rooted, so I don’t have to wait for HTC of whoever to build a ROM – the vastly more talented devs on XDA do a better job, and they do it quicker.
Rooting a phone isn’t about being part of a fad. Rooting our phones is because android is supposed to be an “open” operating system. If I pay hundreds of dollars for a piece of hardware, I’m going to do what I want with it in order to have the best custom tailored experience to my needs.
Also, from a developer’s standpoint, how am I going to be able to test the applications I am developing if I can’t set up my device to be able to test them properly?
It’s not about being a fanboy or being cool. It’s about practicality and the very nature of android itself that attracts us. It’s about the fact that android is supposed to be open. This is why I became an android enthusiast to begin with.
from a dev’s POV i get it, but from a standard phone user, like 90% of the people commenting here, its childish. I would grant u that if a person buys a phone off contract for $400 it should come unlocked. if you get your phone subsidized from a carrier then its your problem. The old saying goes, u get what u pay for.
What? I don’t even understand your logic. To not buy something because it doesn’t do what you want is NOT childish. Its simply not buying an inadequate product. Thats like saying if i want to buy a DVD player and some can play mp3’s and some can’t, and its a feature that I want, not buying the one that can’t is childish.
My next phone will be based solely on dev support. I think more consumers are heading in this direction, especially since forum super is vastly superior to anything offered by carriers and OEMs…
Hey ass hats how about links on your post to the petitions.
stop being a lazy fuck and get it yourself. ass hat.
I approve of this comment fully.
Hey turd for brains how about them not asking me to sign petitions, without links to the actual petitions, that just makes this a horrible post and a bad author, fuck face.
Sent from ?
I’m probably just daydreaming, but… What are the chances of this being a strategically designed marketing ploy? First HTC locks the devices down. Then unlock them after the complaints. And then look like they’re the good guy who listen’s to their customers (unlike Apple and Motorola) and get all the attention? Hmm… I just woke up, so it’s probably just a pipe dream.
if i cant root it. i will not buy it.
It’s as simple as this… There are A LOT of Android devices out there with really great specs. If I’m able to choose another phone that has similar specs with an unlocked bootleader, I will choose the unlocked phone.
I was really excited about the Evo3d (I currently use an Evo 4g) but they took a big fat shit in on my parade when I read the news yesterday. They eliminated themselves from consideration, especially when the Samsung Galaxy S 2 is a very sweet device.
i’m definitely avoiding htc because of this.
Quick Tethering Quiz.
Which costs AT&T more and which puts more stress on their network:
1. A 1 kilobyte packet transmitted between my phone and the tower.
2. A 1 kilobyte packet transmitted between my phone and the tower.
(Please note in the case of (1) the packet was from my mobile browser, and in the case of (2) the packet was from my laptop browser.)
If I have a 2 GB monthly data limit, which of the following activities will use more data on the network:
1. Downloading 2 GB of data to my mobile phone?
2. Downloading 2 GB of data to my laptop?
Tasting.
I have an interesting situation. My water utility sells me metered water for washing dishes, watering the lawn, showering, and other limited purposes.
The utility offers a Tasting plan for an additional monthly charge. Under this plan, I am allowed to use the water also for cooking and drinking. (Even though my water use is metered, and each gallon of water for cooking and drinking is delivered by the same pipes!)
Dear customer: our records indicate that you have been using water for cooking and/or drinking. Please upgrade your water rate plan to our convenient Tasting plan that allows for this usage. If you continue to use water for cooking and drinking, you will be signed up for the Tasting plan automatically.
I think the Tasting plan is just a fee that they made up. It isn’t a service they provide. They just want more money from me. I’ve got a workaround of using a container to obtain water from another room for the purposes of cooking and drinking.
Some people shout: Theft of service!
But what service? They’re already delivering water to me, and metering it, and I’m paying for it, and its delivered by the same pipes!
Some people shout: but you signed an agreement and using the water for cooking and drinking is a breach of that agreement!
Ask a lawyer about the term “unconscionable contract”.
Nobody in their right mind would agree to this if they had any actual choice in the matter. Just because they have the power and can force you into paying this ridiculous fee or doing without doesn’t make it right.
I say that this Tasting “service” is no service at all, it’s just a fee for delivering nothing at all extra to me. It’s a case of the utility wanting something for nothing. Yet people seem to think it is somehow wrong to use the water I’m paying for for drinking or cooking unless I sign up for the more expensive Tasting plan.
In order to add legitimacy to their Tasting plan, the water company says that the Tasting plan is actually delivering something: it includes an additional 2 Gigabytes of water per month, giving you 4 total Gigabytes of water.
But what if I only need 2 Gigabytes of water and therefore my existing monthly 2 Gigabyte plan is plenty? The water company already charges $10 per extra Gigabyte of water I use over the limit. So if I used excess water, it’s not like they wouldn’t get paid.
Furthermore, once I sign up for the Tasting plan, they don’t make any distinction between water used for drinking/cooking and water used for other purposes. I could use 3/4 of it for tasting, and 1/4 for bathing/dishwashing. Or any other split. Or all of it purely for tasting. So then if I paid for Tasting and used only 2 Gigabytes of water, which I already had paid for, then why did I need the Tasting plan?
I seem to be very confused about stealing water for tasting. Someone please set me straight.
HTC, please please please listen to your customers. I LOVE your phones. I think they’re hands down the best phones out there. I want to continue buying your phones for a long time. But I WILL NOT buy a phone I can’t root/hack/mod. And I’m not alone.
Post that on all their pages and e-mail that to customer support. HTC surely doesn’t read through Phandroid comments.
Personally, I think it is nothing more than a bunch of lip service from HTC ala Motorola
http://phandroid.com/2011/04/26/motorola-issues-updated-statement-o-bootloader-outcry-but-not-much-is-new/
Amongst all of the arguing regarding encrypted bootloaders and people pointing out that rooters are an insignificant minority, I am surprised that no one pointed out that if rooters are such a small minority, then why are the OEMs and/or carriers utilizing things such as e-fuses and heavy-duty RSA encryption? I think there are two main reasons they do this:
1) Tethering. For me, personally, I could care less about tethering, I think the longest I’ve ever tethered anything was to do a speed test, and once, a few weeks back, to tether my Thunderbolt to my friend’s Droid X so she could download Liberty (a Droid 2/X ROM – yes, I know, the irony). I know a lot of people rely on their phones to use as a hotspot to run their laptops, which, in my opinion, makes little difference – if the information is sent to your phone or passes through to a laptop, it isn’t going to put anymore strain on the networks, and changes nothing in many cases. It is the people (and I’ve talked to quite a few) who get it into their heads after first seeing LTE/WiMax, etc. that they’re going drop their home ISP and run their computers, xbox360, PS3, stream netflix through blu-ray players, etc., from their phones. THAT is abusing the hell out of tethering and downright ignorant. I hate to play devil’s advocate in that particular matter, but that type of tethering does NOT fall under the “I would’ve done it on my phone anyway, and I paid for it”. You paid for a PHONE data plan, NOT running every device in the house that hooks up to the internet, or playing xbox live death matches 40+hours a week.
2) Free replacements. It would be difficult for me to even estimate how many people on any android site with a forum (including this one) have suddenly had “problems” when a new phone came out. Quite awhile ago, it was reported that Asurion was replacing phones with inferior devices (which lasted about 24 hours because everyone was showing up at the gates with torches and pitchforks – and rightfully so), very shortly afterwards, people reported getting a Droid 2 as a replacement for a D1, for example (I happened to be one of them, and didn’t want anything to do with the D2). Then, suddenly, the Android forums all over the internet were full of people asking what kind of replacement they could expect if their phone had a sudden “accident” – which is literally insurance fraud, and costs money. If your phone had a legitimate accident, that’s one thing, deliberately throwing your phone into a wall or dropping it on a pile of rocks to get a newer phone is ignorant. Deliberately bricking your phone when an update conveniently comes along and claiming the update “broke it” is the same thing, and in case no one noticed, these phones aren’t cheap – the more claims made, the higher prices and deductibles go. While I understand that (most) phone companies pull in money hand-over-fist, and people use that as a justification to say “screw them, they’re already rich”. These companies aren’t your mother, they aren’t here to care about you. They are in business for one reason and one reason only: to make money. Nowhere does it say that these are charity organizations that are supposed to be kind, caring, benevolent entities. They are out to make as much money as possible, and anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. If they are making commercials where they appear to care about you, it is called “marketing”. I don’t see any CEOs reciting the definition of marketing from a dictionary.
With all of that said, although it may have seemed otherwise, I am dead-against encrypted bootloaders, I was only pointing out this issue from a different perspective. There is no “cool factor” in it for me. I like to flash custom ROMs and themes, and play around with themes of my own. I also like to update my phone much more quickly than the OEMs/carriers do, especially when there is a significant update, such as 2.2 (2.3 honestly isn’t much of a difference from 2.2, and with the exception of the icons, 99.9% of people wouldn’t even know the difference, especially if they’re running Launcher Pro, Go Launcher, etc.). In the end, I think encrypting bootloaders, and in some cases, utilizing e-fuses will only create more problems. People aren’t likely to say “Wow, that looks too hard, I’m not rooting this phone.” what will happen is, they’ll just find someone else to do it for them, or just go ahead and try anyway – with a higher chance of bricking the phone to some degree. I am concerned about the bootloader encryption because today, there is encryption and e-fuses, who knows how much more locked-down it will be next year or two years from now? The line has to be drawn somewhere, or else Android is going to end up in the oft-mentioned “walled garden” with their top competitor. I hope that doesn’t happen, because I really love Android, and have had a lot of fun with it the past couple of years.
I e-mailed HTC customer support yesterday and got an e-mail back with the same statement. I wonder how many times their support people had to send out that e-mail. Going to send the same message to all those execs that “Stop Locking” posted above next.
I’ve never rooted my Android phone (yet), but this makes me AVOID HTC. Not because of rooting per-se. Because it indicates the MANAGEMENT type of HTC.
There is a senior level manager who dictated this policy.
Thus, NO HTC for me. Hoping Samsung has better policy.