[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] quarlow:
I know its speculation, hence "I think..." I can't find and industry publication that other than Verizon's vague "we know what's best for you" statement about locked bootloaders. Can you direct me to some of the articles you are referring to? I have found a few that argue locked bootloaders increase cost and frequency of return because they increase the potential for bricking. The people that want root, and to mod the phone will still try to. And a locked bootloader makes them try riskier things than if the bootloader was just unlocked/able. I can find evidence that tethering is a concern, but that AT&T's method of doing it through network sniffing is more effective. I can't find anything to support your speculation that AT&T wants the locked bootloader. Verizon, yes, has publicly stated locked bootloader is good, but mums the word from AT&T, Sprint, T-,Mobile, etc.

Again, then why doesn't AT&T then ask about custom software when you call? I talked to no less than 10 reps trying to troubleshoot the various replacements I received that had issues already when they arrived. Not a single person asked about custom firmware, but they all asked about liquid and physical damage. As I said, I had two people that openly said they couldn't help me navigate the menus because their phone was running custom firmware. One was a supervisor in the warranty department. They field the calls, but HTC takes the burden of cost to give AT&T a replacement, and to recertify the phone. I would speculate that process costs more than $15 for shipping a phone two ways and 15 minutes of a call center employees time. HTC is shipping those phones somewhere too, and paying someone to probably load diagnostic software to test the hardware for defects, then disassembling as needed, etc.

I don't think they are on the same path as RIMM or Nokia ... Yet. The last numbers I remember seeing were 4 million handsets for HTC total (single quarter I think), 20 million Galaxy S III's alone for Samsung (100 days), 5 million iPhone 5's (opening weekend). XDA is a niche site for niche users. After owning a One X for a month I have yet to see one in the wild. I do notice iPhones and GS IIIs all over. But, do see a bunch of OG Evo's: the last HTC phone that was widely marketed. HTC closer to the RIMM/Nokia path than the one Samsung and Apple are taking. It only took 5 years for apple to go from nothing in the smartphone market to capturing over 70% of the entire industry's profit. HTC trend is following the path of previous dominance while maintaining the status quo. Just like Nokia and RIMM did. They had a successful business model, so they just stayed the course, and they are paying for it. HTC claimed they understood this with the One series. But it doesn't look like they do. They don't have much time to make some big changes, before its too late. 5 years ago everyone would have laughed at anyone that told you Apple would sell more phones than Nokia, or that enterprises would exodus from BlackBerry in 5 years. I think HTC can turn it around, but they have to act. They need to market the great devices they make, and they need to focus efforts on a smaller set of devices. The fewer phone models they sell, the faster they get software updates, and that's a huge issue today; that represents a fundamental change in how the smartphone industry operates vs HTC's hayday years.

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