[thought_alarm]

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.

[lmz]

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).

[dagw]

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

Virtually everyone _in the US_.

[thought_alarm]

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.

[biafra]

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?

[Tichy]

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

Just buy the right phone.

[carussell]

So is it open or isn't it?