Which, until HTC's note today, was the same crowbar needed for HTC Android phones sold under carrier contracts. The dealership (BestBuy, Verizon store, whatever) isn't going to unlock your phone's boot loader whether it's iOS or Android.
But since you want to further torture this analogy:
Changing your tires and rims and paint job is like changing your case or wallpaper. Jack up suspension, get an Otter Defender. Changing your OEM stereo is like changing your OEM headphones. Change the exhaust, change the ringtone. On the other hand, rooting your phone to void the warranty is like installing an aftermarket ECU to void the warranty.
While everyone "customizes" their cars and their phones, it's almost always superficial. Very few, even in upstate New York, want to void the warranty with aftermarket parts in the engine control electronics or drive train.
Before Fairfield County, CT, I lived in the Smokey Mountains between North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. I myself had a car on blocks. :-) And before that, for a decade, I lived in central Africa where trucks you couldn't swap parts on like something from Mad Max didn't last long. Point being, I'm familiar with the tradeoffs of DIY customization vs "just works" in a broad spectrum of cultures.
So I'll assure you, the kids in Africa now enabled to communicate through their Nokias and Ericssons and Huaweis[1] don't give a damn about "rooting" their phones, and neither do most Sunday mechanics in the Smokies. Does it send/receive SMS? Can it make calls? For the next generation, can it do email? Great. From Wall St to Kinshasa, people want everyday appliances to just do their jobs and not waste their time.
From Wall St to Kinshasa, people want everyday appliances to just do their jobs and not waste their time.
Why would those have to be mutually exclusive? I drive a Toyota 4Runner. Stock/unmodified it's a great daily driver, a safe family car, hauls a lot of stuff, and is great in the winter. But I like to go fishing, and where I fish is not always easily accessible with what Toyota has given me. Luckily, there is a healthy aftermarket that gives me the freedom to jack up the suspension, add a locking rear differential, and install bigger tires (which are not just for looks).
Or I can buy an HTC HD2 which comes stock with Windows Mobile 6.5 (which does well enough on its own, all WM6 jokes aside it still works as a phone), but thanks to HTC's unlocked bootloader and a healthy aftermarket community, I could also install Android, MeeGo, Ubuntu, and Windows Phone 7. There's no reason why "moddable" and "functional" have to be exclusive categories. Actually a nice thing about WebOS devices is that they are almost completely unbrickable. If you mess up, HP gives you directions on how to boot from USB to reinstall everything. No reason why every other phone can't have that ability, too, to avoid warranty claims.
Which, until HTC's note today, was the same crowbar needed for HTC Android phones sold under carrier contracts. The dealership (BestBuy, Verizon store, whatever) isn't going to unlock your phone's boot loader whether it's iOS or Android.
But since you want to further torture this analogy:
Changing your tires and rims and paint job is like changing your case or wallpaper. Jack up suspension, get an Otter Defender. Changing your OEM stereo is like changing your OEM headphones. Change the exhaust, change the ringtone. On the other hand, rooting your phone to void the warranty is like installing an aftermarket ECU to void the warranty.
While everyone "customizes" their cars and their phones, it's almost always superficial. Very few, even in upstate New York, want to void the warranty with aftermarket parts in the engine control electronics or drive train.
Before Fairfield County, CT, I lived in the Smokey Mountains between North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. I myself had a car on blocks. :-) And before that, for a decade, I lived in central Africa where trucks you couldn't swap parts on like something from Mad Max didn't last long. Point being, I'm familiar with the tradeoffs of DIY customization vs "just works" in a broad spectrum of cultures.
So I'll assure you, the kids in Africa now enabled to communicate through their Nokias and Ericssons and Huaweis[1] don't give a damn about "rooting" their phones, and neither do most Sunday mechanics in the Smokies. Does it send/receive SMS? Can it make calls? For the next generation, can it do email? Great. From Wall St to Kinshasa, people want everyday appliances to just do their jobs and not waste their time.
1. http://gizmodo.com/5634258/the-most-popular-phone-in-the-wor...