There�s a reason smartphones are locked down

"The mobile networks have a rather ambivalent attitude to open source on phones. On one hand, anything that makes it easier to make powerful phones cheaply is good, because it costs them less to subsidise. Plus open source should make it cheap for developers to create apps for the platform. This is a big change in attitude because an open, easy to configure, easy to develop for platform is also very scary for the operators because they're paranoid about a rogue - or just badly-written - app or phone taking down the phone network. That's why the OpenMoko phone - a truly open phone - never got very far; the operators were just too worried about having it on their network."

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