[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Sloprest:
This reminds of what happened several years ago with paintball community. In the beginning the first few manufactures were all friends, shared ideas, innovated. The sport grew very fast and the range of different products available was awesome. Then SmartParts moved in, made a crap ton of vague patents on basic electronic circuits and valving and the whole community fell apart. Everyone began suing each other, innovation stifled and the range of products became limited and innovation ceased. A few companies were forced out of business and eventually even SmartParts when bankrupt, merged with another company and changed their name. It was a very frustrating time because I had a marker from 1996 that performed better than whatever junk SmartParts was cranking out in the mid 2000's.

Apple is trying to make a dent in other OEM's sales but it just wont work. As much as Apple loves how proprietary their devices is it has actually come back to bite them in the ass, for now. Right now there are so many devices on the market sporting Android OS, It would be impossible for Apple to ban them all. Hell when I went into VZW to get a phone I asked to see the Droid 4 and the iPhone 4s. They never even brought the iPhone out which was the same price as the GNX. I know I cant say this for all stores but if the mobile service providers arent pushing their phones anymore Apple will be in trouble because they did a fantastic job of convincing me how inferior the iPhone was. I also go to school for mechanical engineering and our building houses ME,ECE,CE majors and everyone I have asked has grown to hate their iDevices. I was very surprised because they make up more than half of the smartphone base. However everyone seems to be complacent. All their songs are on iTunes, they have had their phone for so long and no one wants to or has the money to shell out for a new device.

To be fair, after extensively playing with iPhones before getting a smart phone, I was slightly disappointed with ICS and the phone. Dropped calls, constant loss of service, random reboots, somewhat glitchy playing games or just transitions navigating. The call problems cleared up after a few weeks though without any updates but the glitchyness remained. However I recently flashed BAMF's version of JB. And boy what a difference from ICS and given the power that I hold in my hand what a giant leap ahead of the iPhone. JB has been everything I hoped a smartphone would feel like.

The way I describe my problem with Apple is if you consider a car manufacturer that says you cant tinker with you car after you buy it. You cant but any other tires on it, no rims, no different brakes, and you have to buy your motor oil and gasoline from us because we know best and you could not possibly understand whats going on. Just get in your car and go from a to b. And thats just plan wrong. Its the complete opposite of what drives innovation. And when you choose to keep a room full of developers cranking out the same old stuff, chose to ignore competition and then fight it with petty nonsense, you are bound to fall behind. What Apple is doing is a fruitless effort. Plus you can never escape karma and you certainly should not bite the hand that feeds you.

/late night rant