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Comment by bad_user | Hacker News Reader

Let me put it this way:

With an iPhone you've got a shiny device that just works and doesn't come with shit installed and that you cannot tinker with.

With an Android you've got a shiny device that many times comes with shit installed and that you cannot tinker with (depending on the manufacturer).

The difference: you can build your own unlocked Android device, and because of competition there will be phone manufacturers that will do just that.

Windows PCs aren't locked, and this came to be mostly due to harsh competition, or am I missing something? Don't you think the likes of Compaq/HP would've rather sold locked devices akin to gaming consoles (also popular at that time)?

You're saying it is "theoretical openness"; I'm saying the market is too young for Android's openness to unravel.

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> you can build your own unlocked Android device, and because of competition there will be phone manufacturers that will do just that.

Wrong. Because handsets are subsidized by the carriers and won't sell otherwise -- so all that competition is equally focused on pleasing the carrier as they are on pleasing the customer. Besides, it's been pointed out many times to me here that the majority of consumers don't care if the platform is open.

> Because handsets are subsidized by the carriers and won't sell otherwise

In the United States. I saw an iPhone sitting in a glass case here for 600 Euro the other day.

You can buy unlocked phones in the states, as well, but they obviously bring a much higher up-front cost. It doesn't change the fact that manufacturers want their phones to be subsidized by the carriers in the US. They're not going to build a separate "more open" version for the rest of the world because it's simply not worth it.

You would be surprised. They are already building separate models for North America (so it is not separate for rest of the world, but separate for NA!).

Just because Apple makes it, doesn't mean it's not shit. I invite you to try and remove their shitty stock app, or weather app or any of the other numerous shitty little apps the iPhone comes with.

They might be basic, but I think the stock iPhone apps are a long way from being shitty in the same sense as Sprint's bundled NASCAR app.

Is this just a class thing? What does the NASCAR app do that's so objectional except be possibly unwanted by the kind of person who doesn't object to a stocks app.

I'm not in the US, but the fact that no-one even bothers to advance any actual reason for not wanting it beyond it being "NASCAR" leads me to assume it's plain old snobbery.

I just drag those into a folder on the last page of apps.

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