While I concede that what we can't do with the DX because of the locked bootloader isn't anything so significant that anyone should be considering mobile phone suicide or anything dramatic like that, I'm personally pissed off at Motorola (and HTC if they begin locking down all their new phones just like they did with the G2) for what they've done with these phones because to me it goes against the spirit of Android.
I also concede that 95% of the population probably does not give a hoot about theming, over clocking, blurless OS's or anything else mentioned on here. But those 95% are the one's that jumped on board the title wave that was Android when it was exploding. They grabbed an Android because it was the 'it' phone. But what made it the 'it' phone was the fact that it was an iPhone stripped of everything that people hated about iPhones, that were customizable... unlike iPhones! It was the anti-iPhone, and everyone who wanted to like the iPhone but just couldn't because of all their built in limits finally had exactly what they had been waiting for. So voting with their wallets the masses told the mobile phone industry that 'THIS' is what we want. And in the 2nd quarter of 2010 Android became the leading smartphone OS sold in the US, accounting for more than 1 of every 3 smartphones sold on the market.
And now they (mainly Moto, but also HTC or so it seems) are taking all of that progress and basically turning it into an iPhone right before our very eyes, and hardly anyone is even batting an eyelash because the people buying Androids today don't really even understand why they are buying this OS. Look through just about any of these forums on this site (save for maybe the Nexus forum) and they are all littered with people who have little to no appreciation for the fact that it's (supposed to be) an open source OS... I can almost guarantee if you were to give a pop quiz on this site less than 50% of the population even knows the definition of open source.
So they aren't going to put up any sort of a fight when the manufacturers lock down their phones, which for all intents and purposes turns them into Apple devices. No the masses will just shrug their shoulders and say, "who cares, they are still great phones". Well sure they are, I'm sure iPhones are great phones (don't personally know, never tinkered with one)... my Blackberry was a great phone, I didn't switch over to Android because my Curve sucked, it was because Android was the antithesis of the iPhone, a product born of a general consensus that we the consumer should have the freedom to do with our phones what we want to do with them just like we do with our computers... especially since we're paying as much as a basic computer costs (only most consumers hang on to their computer longer than a year or two before throwing it away and buying a completely brand new one)!!!
Yes it's my opinion (and only my opinion) that Motorola and HTC are in effect killing the entire philosophy behind Android. And the only way to regain that glimmer of hope of keeping it alive is to find a phone (or even more preferably a MANUFACTURER) who stays the course with the 'OPEN' part of open source. The only way to make certain that it stays open is to vote with our wallets. But the fate of this technology lays square in the hands of the consumer.
And I'm afraid there just won't be enough of them out there today who actually care either way what happens to Android.
