HTC Unlocks Its Own Phones

itwbennett writes "Having just announced that it would continue to run Android on its best phones, HTC is now 'needling' Google by making good on 'promises it made earlier in the year to deliver bootloader unlock tools for many of its most popular Android phones,' writes blogger Kevin Fogarty. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, HTC CEO Peter Chou said that HTC views unlocked OSes as a way to encourage both ISVs and owners to get more involved developing apps and mods for the phones. Google, which has been trying to lock Android down more, probably doesn't see it that way."

Comments

What

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we get a citation on "Google, which has been trying to lock Android down more,". Google has released two phones ever, both of which are easily rootable. Or does Google somehow take the heat for Motorola's actions prior to the buyout? Or is this just more FUD?

Re:What

[GooberToo]

Agreed. More of the endless flood of trollish, completely dishonest reporting which is constantly being pushed on /. these days.

Google is pushing for an ever more open Android. They are, of course, balanced by carriers who want a more closed ecosystem - the status quo.

Bluntly, HTC's desire for openness is only SURPASSED by Google's.

This perhaps hint at an article for hire by Microsoft or Apple - both of whom have been caught doing this type of unethical FUDing before. Both Microsoft and Apple have a strong desire to unseat Android, seemingly no matter how low they need to go.

Perhaps the courts and patent battles are not going nearly as well as Microsoft and Apple had originally hoped?

Re:What

[GooberToo]

Obviously you don't know what the words, "locked down" and/or "open" mean in this context.

Re:What

[Reapman]

Force a standardized UI? I didn't realize they were removing ADW Launcher or GO Launcher or Launcher Pro from the Market. Or do you mean after listening to the ENDLESS Complaints about MotoBlur and other 3rd party crap handset makers throwing on their phone and actually wanting to do something about it then yes, yes they are.

If you want an "open" phone (Aka do whatever you want) you buy a Nexus Phone made by Google. And that is probably the most accurate definition of Open in this conversation.

Re:What

[elashish14]

Exactly what I was thinking - another FUD attack on Google. The first thing I think now when I hear an attack on Google and Android is that there's a very good chance that it was written by a shill.

IMO, Apple doesn't have much of a reputation for hiring shills to do the dirty work for them - they have big enough mouths to spew FUD themselves.

Microsoft on the other hand has a deep-running history of hiring shills - and it wouldn't be the first time CNET's been on the receiving end either.

Re:What

[shutdown -p now]

Samsung seems to be pretty open as well, at least with their latest offerings (I have an SGS2). I think Motorola is the only major Android vendor that still tries to lock things in now.

Re: What

[marcello_dl]

honeycomb is android for tablets
FTFY
And we were speaking about android.

Delaying source code release is not a good thing when you're google and you became successful with the beta label in your offerings. We have enough nannies already.

needle-needle

[Toonol]

HTC is now 'needling' Google by making good on 'promises it made earlier in the year to deliver bootloader unlock tools for many of its most popular Android phones,'

I have a strong suspicion that Google will not care one single bit.

Wait...what? Huh??

[GweeDo]

"Google, which has been trying to lock Android down more, probably doesn't see it that way."

The only phones that Google "produces" are the Nexus line. These have unlockable bootloaders already. Don't get me wrong, I am happy HTC is doing this, but that statement about Google is just silly and wrong.

Re:Wait...what? Huh??

[andymadigan]

The purchase hasn't gone through yet, so referring to Motorola Mobility as 'Google' is not (yet) accurate. Who knows what Google will do with Moto once they have control? They might decide efuse was a bad idea and release an unlock app.

Re:Wait...what? Huh??

[GweeDo]

Most people believe that Google purchased Motorola Mobility for their patent portfolio to protect against the likes of Oracle and Apple since they are currently so sue happy. That has nothing to do with locked or unlocked bootloaders.

Re:Wait...what? Huh??

[roc97007]

What's more important is what the policy will be after the sale goes through. Realistically Google can't be held responsible for policies of some company they don't own.

Re:Wait...what? Huh??

[canyoufindben]

Right, Google's only lockdown being applied is to make sure you can exploit the OS or kernel for root access. Now with unlocked bootloaders, and a kernel source, one can compile their own Android with root access that doesn't compromise the OS or the kernel. To think that Google is the one locking the bootloaders is just plain madness. OEMs are responsible for that.

Re:Wait...what? Huh??

[gorzek]

I'm with everyone else: what the hell is the submitter talking about??

Re:Wait...what? Huh??

[gad_zuki!]

Since Google decided to delay releasing Honeycomb's source because they didnt want more half-cooked tablets on the market, suddenly the loud-mouth brigade is trying to paint them in a bad light. Google exerting a little control on the wild-west world of tablets and its own phoneOS is a good thing. Heaven forbid AOpen or some other shit shop wait a few weeks for google to iron out the bugs, have them verify their hardware can run Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich and make them sign a contract that they will updates the OS to the newest versions for a period of 18 months. The de facto world of release garbage and buggy phones, never supplying updates and hurting Android's reputation is no longer welcome, and I'm glad.

Re:Wait...what? Huh??

[molnarcs]

Um, hello? Google has infamously withheld Android source and tried to make more restrictive compatibility requirements for vendors. All of these things have been covered on Slashdot.

Google absolutely, most definitely has been trying to lock Android down more. No offense, but you have an Android app link in your signature, so you have a vested financial interest in Android.

Bonch, stop trolling. You confuse quality control with preventing users do whatever they want with their phones. Your tirade is about the former, and I think you're alone in seeing that as a bad thing. HTC's announcement is about the latter - something Google has been pushing with their Nexus line since the Nexus One. Get yourself some brains please.

Lock Android down?

[secondsun]

Other than Honeycomb and GoogleTV being not open sourced (which Google admits is a one off which will be fixed in Ice Cream Sandwich), what other evidence of them locking Android down is there? It really felt like a throw away line.

Meanwhile, HTC makes rather awesome phones and this makes it much easier to suggest phones to other developers.

Re:Lock Android down?

[MightyYar]

They haven't purchased them yet - just announced the deal. Give Google a few months once they are in charge before judgement.

Re:Lock Android down?

[bonch]

Try again:

"We are using compatibility as a club to make [Android vendors] do things we want." - Android manager Dan Morrill, email from August 6, 2010

Re:Lock Android down?

[Bucky24]

And yet there is so much fragmentation.....

Good on HTC

[milbournosphere]

I will definitely keep this in mind when shopping for my next phone. I wonder if this HTC news, the Google/Moto deal and Samsung's dealings with Cyanogen will lead to a more open phone environment in the near future. I'm crossing my fingers :)

WTF?

[Daneurysm]

I'm not sure what the hell is going on over at HTC but not only has Google made every one of their phones easily unlockable, nor do I think they care to, but, HTC also made the very first Nexus (NexusOne). "Fastboot oem unlock" is a mantra among the Android hacking/modding community for that very reason.

Color me confused.

Re:Google could be happy.

[h4rr4r]

Google does not present Android that way. Their Nexus line of phones do the complete opposite. By default android allows out of market installations and all kinds of other non-walled garden things.

HTC is my new favorite company

[roc97007]

...and will be my next phone...

Re:HTC is my new favorite company

[whoever57]

...and will be my next phone...

Why? Samsung is ahead of HTC in providing unlocked phones.

Buy HTC

[PitaBred]

This story means that I'm going to recommend HTC phones over others to everyone I know, and buy them myself when I upgrade. Even if my friends/family don't unlock theirs, this news just gives me that much more trust in HTC hardware.

Unlocked HTC phones are

[figleaf]

no longer under warranty?!!!

Re:Unlocked HTC phones are

[padraic2]

It's an important detail that some are worried about - you provide your phone's information (not sure how much personal info is required) to their unlock web tool in order to get a "key" (probably a flashable .zip file) that will unlock the bootloader. But, say in the near future you have a hardware malfunction - are you now told "we see you're on the unlock list - sorry, no warranty for you"?

Kevin Fogarty (source article author)

[Loopy]

What does this dude have against Google? Does he know something nobody else does? From the bottom of his article:

"I think there's a lot we can do...it's not the operating system, it's the ecosystem...so we think we can find a way to differentiate to add value, but at the same time leverage our partners, Google and Microsoft, since we have such a great relationship with them," Chou told Dow Jones Newsires during an interview.

Where's this "needling Google" Kevin alludes to?

Same regarding security

[DrYak]

Agreed. More of the endless flood of trollish, completely dishonest reporting which is constantly being pushed on /. these days.

And same goes, in my opinion, for their comment about security:

Unlocked phones and user-installed software pose much higher risk of infection by malware or corruption of system software.

Uh... no... sorry. An unlocked phone isn't suddenly more susceptible to malware, just because it's unlocked. That might have been true in some case with iPhones due to 2 separate reasons (A. a blunder which left all phones with the same default password for SSH, making it easy to remotely log into iphone of user not savvy enough to change the password after installing SSH. B. due to the closed nature of iPhones, some hole might have to be left open so after each reboot the iPhone can still be forced to run homebrew apps). But in practice, unlocked phones tend to be more secure, simply for the fact that they can still get updates (like the cyanogenmods) which are likely to contain the latest security patch, even long after the manufacturer and/or the carrier have dropped support. Not to mention that some 3rd party ROMs might contain additional security features.