dannypage

This blog has an extremely good point. I expected to have a ton of control over my phone, like you might have with a linux computer. Instead, I’m stuck with a bunch of Verizon apps I’ll never use, updates to the OS that I can never download until they deem it suitable, and unable to make basic changes to the behavior of the phone. I still like my phone, but to advertise it as Open to customers is ridiculous. 

And to those talking about the average user, they see a lot of the same issues too. “That looks cool, can I put that on my phone?” Probably not. “Why do I have these apps? I don’t want them”. Everyone has these issues, not just geeks.

parislemon:

This is a great post by Danny Sullivan. For those of us caught up in the iOS vs. Android battle, it can be easy to lose sight of the simple, bigger picture.

Android may be “open” in the fact that other companies can use the source code and users who so desire (and know how) can root it. But from a pure consumer perspective, the Android phone ecosystem is often anything but open. It’s a huge fucking nightmare — as has been showcased once again by the release of Ice Cream Sandwich.

How weird is it that Google just released a new flagship OS and is going on and on about how great it is, but the vast majority of users have absolutely no access to it? Worse, most have absolutely no clue when — or if — they’ll ever have access to it. This sounds like pretty much the opposite of being “open” to me.

Even stranger, this even includes the devices given Google’s own stamp of approval. Writes Sullivan:

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