[G2 and Desire Z General] Pickx:
Sigh, you people are out of touch with reality - whether unknowingly or because you have an uncontrollable (if justified) urge to whine on the internet. I'm going to go on a huge rant now, watch out :rolleyes:

HTC did not "do this for T-Mobile". HTC has the most to benefit from this. To explain, I must first go off on a tangent...

Smartphones are slowly becoming commodity - just like the process that PCs underwent in the 90s.

The difference is, most people don't need mobile phones that are much more powerful than what we have today. What are they going to use it for?

Play more advanced games? That's not going to work. OEMs are allergic to physical buttons, and without them you just can't make anything more than casual games.

1080p streaming? Well okay, but apparently Tegra 2 can do this and it should be here no later than Q2 2011.

OS responsiveness? G2 is already responsive enough that anything much faster would not make a noticeable difference to the average user, and new mobile operating systems aren't coming any time soon (plus, WP7 demonstrated that with proper optimization, yesterday's processors do the job just fine)

The only things that aren't future-proof enough at the moment are screen technologies and battery life. But in terms of processing power... well, look at benchmarks. See how high the overclocked G2's benchmarks are compared to the HTC Magic? The score is 10 times higher!* Can you honestly say the average user would have a use for a mobile phone that benchmarks 10 times the overclocked G2's score? Or even an advanced user? The plateau isn't that far away, if you ask me.

So how can htc keep selling you phones? They have to put artificial restrictions on the hardware. For example, ere they able to put better speakers on the G2? Certainly, but they chose not to. Could Samsung have added a flash to their widely-distributed flagship phone? You bet. But they chose not to.

And now, I'll get to the point

- why do HTC, Motorola etc go out of their way to prevent you from flashing custom ROMs and kernels? Because current phones are 'strong enough' for most people and should be able to handle new Android revisions flawlessly for a looooong time. This extends the life of the device and makes you more reluctant to let it go - htc would much rather you get your single firmware update and then shut up, bend over and buy the new HTC G3.

HTC is a business and will do anything they can to encourage you to reach for your wallet. Especially when they can spin this as "security measures to protect the buyer" and when the portion of buyers who wish to flash ROMs is pretty negligible. So this protection is going to appear in every new high-end HTC device until it's cracked, at which point we'll see even more advanced protections.

Does T-Mobile benefit from this? Yes. It lets them control your ability to tether, remove bloatware and other things that disrupt their steady flow of revenue. But if you think T-Mobile asked HTC to do this (or if you think that a carrier has a say whether HTC locks the device up or not!), you are delusional. They are simply joining the fun because it is beneficial to them.

* That is, if directly comparing Quadrant scores were a viable method to compare performance. It isn't. My point still stands.