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Message to Carriers: Why Do We Root?

chanchan05 said:
Unless carriers there work again differently in this case to the carriers here, selling your phone does not mean you won't pay the rest of your contract within which is enclosed the rest of the phone's price. The carriers won't mind you selling the phone off since you'll still be "supposed" to be paying your contract. They already got your $200, and the rest of the money is on its way.
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Technically, you could break the the contract, pay a $300-400 ETF and be done with it. You don't have the right to do that with a car though. The dealer legally owns the car, not you. With a phone, you own the phone the moment you fork over the $200.
 
You "sort of" own the phone. Yes, I can get a discounted or free phone on contract. I did for daughter. They say full price for the Stratosphere was $499 (nice phone, but not worth that price....). I got it free by upgrading her $9.99 additional phone to $9.99 + 29.99 (data).

So. ...I walked out of store with new free phone, nothing out of pocket. If I sold phone next day, I am still responsible for contract, or pay a $350 early termination fee.

Not sure if I could have sold phone, and just "downgraded" her plan back to the "non-smartphone" plan. Assuming I could, I am still locked in for 2 years, and the early termination fee will still stick.

By making you take the 2 year contract, that is how they make up the difference on buying phone full retail price. If I paid $499 for her phone, paid monthly for service (9.99 + 29.99), then sold her phone after a month, I can cancel her service with out a problem. No contract, no termination fee....

So, in essence, carriers do "discount" with contracts, knowing if contract is broken, they will be paid. (Or can sue to be paid...)
 
sherri said:
You "sort of" own the phone. Yes, I can get a discounted or free phone on contract. I did for daughter. They say full price for the Stratosphere was $499 (nice phone, but not worth that price....). I got it free by upgrading her $9.99 additional phone to $9.99 + 29.99 (data).

So. ...I walked out of store with new free phone, nothing out of pocket.
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You walked out with nothing out of pocket, but not a free phone. You're paying for it by agreeing to a new contract which finances the phone through higher monthly bills. You will end up paying MORE than $499 for that phone by the end of the conract.

If I sold phone next day, I am still responsible for contract, or pay a $350 early termination fee.
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Yes. The $350 charge covers the wholesale cost of the phone so if you terminate the carrier doesn't lose money on the phone.

Not sure if I could have sold phone, and just "downgraded" her plan back to the "non-smartphone" plan.
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Not without paying the $350 termination fee.

So, in essence, carriers do "discount" with contracts, knowing if contract is broken, they will be paid. (Or can sue to be paid...)
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??? Phones from US carriers are never truly discounted, except maybe for a closeout sale to unload old or unpopular models. One way or another, carriers WILL get paid for phones.
 
the number of rooted androids is a small portion of the population. I would guess less than 10%.

i am rooted. :) and love what it gives me.

sprint's new LTevo is not loaded down with to much bloatware. and let the user load the sprint apps that they want.
 
dan330 said:
the number of rooted androids is a small portion of the population. I would guess less than 10%.
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I think that would be a big enough market for a bold enterprise to release a rooted 4G, loaded with all the necessaries like a choice of ROMs, Titanium Backup and such, free data and tether (probably up to a point). Anyway, legitimize what’s happening here by making it available off the shelf. I know they’d have at least one sale...
 
Carriers don't care about rooted phones for the same reason apple devices are locked down and controlled; they treat them as a extension of their property and property makes money, plain and simple. They keep things a certain way to maintain the situation, after all it's not in their interests to alter things and rooting cuts them out of the equation to some degree and that's not good business practice.
Sad but true. ;)
 
Charging for text is a complete and total scam all in itself. It's just data that is being sent and it's a kilobyte of data to boot. It literally puts next to no strain on the network. You could send thousands of messages for the same data it takes to stream one song. It's ridiculous.
 
It begs the question, why don't we have root access as standard? These are pocket computers, we have admin rights over our home PC's.

Perhaps sim-free handsets should have root access. Branded units are part subsidised by the carrier so maybe rooting for those is something a carrier could charge for, much like unlocking & debranding?*

Just another example of how carriers are behind the times.

* Of course we would find our own way of doing it
 
The problem would be the support costs. We see enough users here who root then break their phones by removing something they didn't understand was important, and they have been through a learning curve and had advice at least available to them. They also have support here for fixing the errors.

Now imagine if everyone could just do that out of the box. Would the manufacturer want to cover the consequences under their warranty? Or just let customers go around saying how rubbish their phones are because they did one simple thing and it broke? Just not worth it.
 
Maybe not pure root as far as what the phone needs to run - but non-destructive type where you can get rid of bloat entirely to free up space for an app that runs the way you want. Some want high end music apps or video players of their own choice and can't install for lack of space. Even if you freeze the app, it's still taking up space.
 
I think that's the point. They want to force the consumers to use those apps, unless they root. Not too much of a problem I think on something like an SGS2 which has 2GB or more dedicated memory for app installation, but a problem for phones with less than that.
 
Those consumers who can't install an app because their phone has run out of space are the minority. Besides, as pointed out earlier, aren't pre-installed apps marked as system apps and stored in a different place than user downloaded apps are?
 
I'm not sure you can freeze apps on ICS. I think it just hides it from the launcher. Also, the pre-installed apps are usually installed as system apps and a non-rooted user doesn't have rights to uninstall system apps.
 
I'm rooted and love it. I have been since the first month I've had it. Sprint doesnt' really care and still is supporting the phones that are rooted. The bloatware was one issue the other was really that I wanted to have control over my phone. I also wanted to put my apps on the sdcard and not just a portion of it but the whole app. I am however a bit more tech savvy than the common user. I don't think phones should come rooted but I do think there should be an easy way for me to root it if I so choose to. There are people out there with rooted phones that really have no business having a rooted phone. If asked what ROM they are on you get a sort of "duh" response. And some people just don't care to have a rooted phone they just want it to do a few things email, text, make calls, check facebook, and browse the internet. That's one reason why Apple is so popular because most people don't care whats under the hood or how it works just as long as it works. I'm not one of those people I want under the hood so that I can change things to my liking.
 
argedion said:
I'm rooted and love it. I have been since the first month I've had it. Sprint doesnt' really care and still is supporting the phones that are rooted. The bloatware was one issue the other was really that I wanted to have control over my phone. I also wanted to put my apps on the sdcard and not just a portion of it but the whole app. I am however a bit more tech savvy than the common user. I don't think phones should come rooted but I do think there should be an easy way for me to root it if I so choose to. There are people out there with rooted phones that really have no business having a rooted phone. If asked what ROM they are on you get a sort of "duh" response. And some people just don't care to have a rooted phone they just want it to do a few things email, text, make calls, check facebook, and browse the internet. That's one reason why Apple is so popular because most people don't care whats under the hood or how it works just as long as it works. I'm not one of those people I want under the hood so that I can change things to my liking.
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You and me both.

BTW- even freezing in TB doesn't always hide an app. I froze Maps for 2 months and kept getting notices for updates.

Some apps will disappear, some won't.
 
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