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Is openness really an advantage Android has over iPhone?

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jhocking:
I've long figured that while Android is the more open platform, I prefer developing for iPhone. However, I just saw this article that calls Android's openness into question, and I'm curious what other people think.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/09/android-open/

est:
I think that Android is really only "open" for carriers and xda-dev type hackers, but not so much for the regular people who just want to put apps onto their phone and put their songs on, etc.  Google gives carriers & OEMs the freedom to lock down their handsets however they want, for example: the handsets that have come out and then only months later the manufacturer/carrier states that customers cannot update the version of Android on it.

There's more to it than that, but I have to head out.  Will pick it back up later, because it's a topic of interest for me.

Rizzo:
What about rooted phones though? You can fairly easily hack an android to run pretty much any variant of the operating system, regardless of the carrier. Sure, it's a little complex but I would say that pretty much anyone with a handle on technology could manage it. Apple actively does not want you upgrading your system unless you're paying them for it. The article briefly addresses this but honestly, there are one click roots out there for most android phones (providing you're using windows on your home machine) but not for iphone.

At the end of the day, phone carriers are the new oligarchies. I'm luck enough to be with a carrier here in NZ that doesn't provide hand sets, only sim cards. So what you do with your machine is your own problem.

jhocking:

--- Quote from: Rizzo on 05 Feb 2011, 17:08 ---Apple actively does not want you upgrading your system unless you're paying them for it.

--- End quote ---

Sure Google doesn't mind you upgrading your system, but your carrier does. That's the point of the article, and what I never really thought about before since I don't have an Android phone myself. It does sound like you have a good thing going with your carrier, but if I just transplant your statement to the US, Verizon actively does not want you upgrading your system unless you're paying them for it.

I'm not sure rooting really counts in this discussion, since you can jailbreak an iPhone. I guess the difference could be if/how much carriers mind people rooting their phones, and that's something I know nothing about.

Incidentally, you don't have to pay Apple for iOS updates, but of course that's their prerogative.

Rizzo:
Yes but if you go and hack your own device is your carrier going to revoke your connection? Surely not? Can you not just buy a Verizon sim card and put it in your phone or can you only get on their network through stores?

Of course rooting/jailbreaking count. Any method that gets around the protection placed by the manufacturer/supplier makes the phone more open surely. If you use a rooted phone in NZ on any network, it will work, provided you have a sim card for that network in your phone. I honestly cannot imagine any company anywhere cutting off your service cause you hacked your device. At the end of the day the hacked device is still using their services and generating them revenue.

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