Android’s Dirty Secret

I don't know if the numbers are true but if they are the carriers and phone makers are doing it to themselves. I upgraded my wife's android phone a couple of weeks ago and she picked a Samsung (on verizon).

After she got it home and played with it we found it was locked to use Bing. We could not install the google search box and other google apps. It went back to the the store and I paid my $35 restocking fee and came back with an HTC.

I few days later I tried to upgrade to a Droid 3 for myself. I didn't like the 'skin' that Motorola had put on it but my original Droid is getting slow and I wanted a new phone. I couldn't buy it because Motorola added a special terms and conditions to the activation process but the T&C were on the internet. You can't get to the internet (even wifi) unless the phone is activated and I wouldn't activate the phone without reading the Moto T&C. Chicken and Egg.

I don't buy it. That's ridiculous. There's no way the numbers are that high. Is John Biggs going to report every "rumor" that someone will whisper in his ear? It could very well be a smear campaign like the one Facebook tried to do to Google.

Would some Android phones have that high return rate? It's possible. But 40% return rate on average? That's beyond ridiculous.

This article makes absolutely no reference to any sources to back up it's claim. Flagged.