Having the majority of phones be openly reflashable, even if you lock it down to only being via USB, opens up the possibility of a widespread PC virus infection reflashing phones en-masse whenever they are plugged in.
That's quite a scary scenario - the mobile networks were built on the assumption of controlled devices and are not able to withstand a lot of rogue devices doing bad stuff. There are also some business considerations: for instance, operators restrict tethering because the pricing level the "all you can eat" plans sell for assumes usage from mobile phones. If they allow tethering people will start running BitTorrent and the like over the air, which will place the operators in the same kind of quagmire as landline ISPs are in. We want "all you can eat" rate plans to become the standard, just like on landline connections, but that requires affordable connections. A simple way to get that is to impose a few easily understood rules on the basic price plans, like no tethering - and that in turn requires operator controlled devices. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
