[ Thanks to James
Maguire for this link. ]
“Another big reason OpenMoko went nowhere was a lack of any
partnership with the phone companies and handset providers. Most
people get their phones as part of their cellular contract, and no
phone company I know of sold an OpenMoko phone with their
contracts.“The blame could go two ways here. Did the makers of the phone
not bother to try and engage the telcos, out of some sense that it
would constitute a deal with the devil?“I originally thought the phone companies took one look at the
inherently rootable OpenMoko and ran for the hills, but they
haven’t balked too badly at the way other phones—from the
iPhone on down—can be rooted and customized from the inside
out.”