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Comment by thought_alarm | Hacker News Reader

> Google does nothing to prevent anyone from creating their own "app store"

Neither does RIM.

But Google is marketing Android based on it being "open", when the truth is Android is no more open than BlackBerry or Windows Mobile.

If you're purchasing an Android device on the idea of openness, like I know a lot of people are doing, you're being swindled.

Meanwhile, in the war between carriers and users, Apple is turning out to be a much stronger advocate for their consumers than any other cell phone manufacturer or software provider, whereas with Android it's turning out to be the same old rotten business as usual.

The truth hurts, doesn't it?

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"Android is no more open the BlackBerry or Windows Mobile"

Huh??? There are hundreds of thousands of phones out in the wild running Android builds not blessed by Google. If you design a new phone you can install Android on it and sell it. You can download the source. If you try to do any of that with BB or Windows Mobile you'll be sued and/or imprisoned.

And the carriers are gladly taking advantage of that "openness". But to the end user it means nothing, because virtually everyone purchases their Android devices through their carrier, locked to whatever software that carrier has approved. What you end up with is a device that's no more open than a BlackBerry, except that at least RIM can exercise a modicum of control over what the carriers can and cannot do to their devices.

Meanwhile, nobody has to Jailbreak their iPhone to prevent their carrier from pushing garbage onto their device.

Greetings from my corner of the world! We don't normally purchase phones through carriers here, although recently Apple and Blackberry have initiated such programs. That means we can get cheap Chinese Android devices (with predictable quality).

I didn't have to jailbreak my Nexus One either.

Just buy the right phone.

virtually everyone purchases their Android devices through their carrier, locked to whatever software that carrier has approved.

Virtually everyone _in the US_.

Cell phone manufacturers must go through the exact same software approval process with their European carriers as with their North American carriers.

Except for Apple, of course. Their customers can download and install an update directly from Apple as soon as it's released. Apple's the only one who's allowed to do that. Android, on the other hand, is no different than BlackBerry.

Wrong.

I installed all the updates on my Milestone after downloading them from the Motorola website. Mostly because OTA didn't work for me.

And on my Nexus One I built Froyo myself from source and use it ever since.

How do I do that with a Blackberry?

So is it open or isn't it?

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