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AT&T is blocking all non-Market apps on their Android Phones...

gsaldivar

gsaldivar

Diamond Member
http://www.informationweek.com/news...cle.jhtml?articleID=225700381&subSection=News

"...AT&T is, as far as I know, the only U.S. carrier to block off-market applications from Android devices. Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless all allow their Android devices to install off-market apps. I really have to wonder if this is because of some contractual obligation AT&T has with Apple and the iPhone ... it cripples what is otherwise a great smartphone..."

Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with rooting or "jail-breaking" of the phone. Unlike the iPhone, the stock Android OS allows the user to allow the installation of non-Market apps in the settings:

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Yea, root it ... go in there and change a 1 to a 0. That was hard

EDIT: Cuz you edited.

I understand what you are saying about rooting, however I just don't see why an android user can't get around this in some way. Isn't that why all the android fans diss the iPhone? Because the iPhone is somehow not free like Android? Except Android isn't free - except the nexus one and other exceptions that maybe I don't know about, its all the manufacturers version of Android and not the OS itself.
 
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Yet another reason not to go with ATT. If they ever loose their iPhone deal, they're going to be in trouble unless they're willing to get rid of these ridiculous policies.
 
Why would you get Android on AT&T anyways? To share the already strained network with bazillions of iPhone users?

Does the carrier get a cut of the marketplace profit?
 
vshah said:
to be fair all the stuff 90% of people would want is available in the market.
Click to expand...

Actually I would say it's more like 99%+. But that doesn't matter. This is a stock feature of the OS that they are limiting for no reason that I can think of. PDAnet is available on the market and wirelss tether requires you to be rooted. This is a stupid policy for some stupid reason I can't think of. Heaven help them if they ever loose the iPhone.
 
boomhower said:
Actually I would say it's more like 99%+. But that doesn't matter. This is a stock feature of the OS that they are limiting for no reason that I can think of. PDAnet is available on the market and wirelss tether requires you to be rooted. This is a stupid policy for some stupid reason I can't think of. Heaven help them if they ever loose the iPhone.
Click to expand...

If they had no iPhone they probably would be in a worse situation than T-mobile.
 
If you're stupid enough to sign with AT&T with their data caps and second rate Androids you also deserve to be charged out the ass for apps.
 
senseamp said:
Does the carrier get a cut of the marketplace profit?
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With iPhone T does not get anything. In fact, in addition to buying the iPhone at almost MSRP they have to pay Apple a percentage of monthly service charges for every iPhone account.

With other phones T grinds the makers into selling phones well below MSRP (nokia won't play that) and charge you MSRP. Locks up phones and trys to get you to buy every add on through T from GPS to games. And yes T get a percentage, thats the whole reason for lock down.
 
Zebo said:
With iPhone T does not get anything. In fact, in addition to buying the iPhone at almost MSRP they have to pay Apple a percentage of monthly service charges for every iPhone account.
Click to expand...

There is debate as to whether that is still the case. It was originally, but some people say its not now.
 
Oh LOL. Okay so it looks like AT&T is unquestionably the worst carrier in the US. They have the iPhone so I guess they figure they can do whatever they want and no one will care. People complain about Verizon but they earned their way to the top with their broad network coverage and by getting a lot of really great phones.

Oh well, blocking non-market apps isn't actually a problem for most people. If you're a phone junkie, you'll root anyway; if you're not, then you likely aren't even aware of the missing feature. And it's not like anyone is getting on their case about people installing pirated apps - other Android phones from the same manufacturers on other carriers are not similarly limited.
 
Deeko said:
I'm surprised Sprint is as high as they are on that.
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I believe that is what percentage of each carriers phones are Android, not what percent of the market they have since the whole graph adds up to 92%. Either that or it's a shitty graph that doesn't mean a damned thing.
 
AstroManLuca said:
Oh LOL. Okay so it looks like AT&T is unquestionably the worst carrier in the US. They have the iPhone so I guess they figure they can do whatever they want and no one will care. People complain about Verizon but they earned their way to the top with their broad network coverage and by getting a lot of really great phones.

Oh well, blocking non-market apps isn't actually a problem for most people. If you're a phone junkie, you'll root anyway; if you're not, then you likely aren't even aware of the missing feature. And it's not like anyone is getting on their case about people installing pirated apps - other Android phones from the same manufacturers on other carriers are not similarly limited.
Click to expand...

They also have international capability, well, them and T-Mobile but 3G won't work internationally with T-Mobile since they use a non standard freq in USA. That international capability somewhat of a selling point compared to other US carriers. That is until they get hit with international roaming charges LOL. Both T and T-moblie try and electronically "lock" sim to phone so that you can't switch SIM cards to an el cheapo sim while abroad so they can ream your ass with roaming charges.

AT&T gets around 35 million of it's customers just from apples device. Take that away and they would wither if they keep this bullshit up. In Essence Apple saves T.
 
boomhower said:
I believe that is what percentage of each carriers phones are Android, not what percent of the market they have since the whole graph adds up to 92%. Either that or it's a shitty graph that doesn't mean a damned thing.
Click to expand...

Seriously? Verizon has a lot of Android phones, but 48% of all their phones are not android. The chart obviously is out of all Android phones in the U.S., what carriers are they on. So VZW has 48% of all activated android phones.

Also, the numbers DO add up to 100. Not sure whats wrong with our calculator.
 
I think what people fail to realize is that AT&T's frequencies at least are semi-compatible with the rest of the world meaning you can get your hands on a HTC Desire or Nexus One or any of those unlocked devices floating around.

Your phone solution is not limited to the carrier's phones....

We have yet to see amazing carrier phones yet although the Galaxy S is the start of it all. If it is still neutered, then I'll be pretty pissed... but then again there should be an NAM Galaxy S that doesn't have a dumb AT&T logo on it sometime soon.

Edit: Sigh. The Aria is locked. GG MONEY. Buy an HTC Legend with NAM frequencies. It's like $489 off NegriElectronics or something. I say that's decent.
 
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boomhower said:
I believe that is what percentage of each carriers phones are Android, not what percent of the market they have since the whole graph adds up to 92%. Either that or it's a shitty graph that doesn't mean a damned thing.
Click to expand...

No, it's what percentage of Android phones are used on what carrier. Out of the almost 900,000 phones they counted, the bulk of them were Verizon. And the 8% n/a may be other regional carriers (companies like Cellular South and whats left of Alltel have android phones), people who have modded phones to work on budget carriers like Cricket and MetroPCS (there's quite a community doing this for both carriers) and even unbranded devices like the Nexus One.
 
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