[forgotusername]

Torvalds must be on drugs or also trolling hard to be talking about an absence of carrier lock-in and Android in the same sentence - an OS rendered practically unusable should you elect not to associate your device with a Google account, and all that such entails.

[jackowayed]

Those are very different problems.

Cell-phone carriers have formed an oligopoly due to the extremely high cost of building nationwide service and the limited amount of mobile spectrum. This will naturally lead to a situation where the industry can stagnate and overcharge with there being very little pressure from new entrants to the market that try to exploit the market failure. Carrier-lockin makes this problem even worse because they make it even more expensive to use their services unless you lock yourself in longterm in exchange for a phone subsidy that amounts to a discount.

Sure, there are lots of concerns about Google having lots of information about you. But at least you have choices, and at least you don't have to pay Google $100/month and pay them more if you want to leave.

[myko]

What? It's perfectly feasible to have an Android phone and never sign up for a Google account. There are third party app stores (Amazon, GetJar, etc). If you don't feel like using a third party app store you can just install apks directly from the web.

[eatfish]

Your device becomes unsellable without the Google lock in. Lots of companies tried it early on in the Android ecosystem. Even those who hit great price points, provided a vanilla Android experience and provided their own app stores failed miserably.

It's just naiive to think you can be successful without Google.

[esolyt]

OS rendered practically unusable?

No. Only Google services are rendered practically unusable. Actually, they are rendered completely unusable.

The OS on the other hand, remains perfectly and completely usable.

[CrazedGeek]

In what way is an Android device "rendered practically unusable" when not associated with a Google account? Having run an Android tablet without one for a while, it was pretty much exactly as usable as with a Google account.

[chongli]

He's talking about the new Nexus 4 which is $299 unlocked with no contract; hence no carrier lock-in.

[vvhn]

there's some speculation that LG is insependently planning to sell for much higher http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/11/03/spanish-phone-retail...

That sounds like Google is not just selling it at cost but subsidizing it as well.

[recoiledsnake]

If you're in the US, the Nexus 4 doesn't support CDMA, which rules out Sprint and Verizon. AT&T doesn't give a discount for bringing your own phone, so you'd be losing money if you don't take a device for them but buy a data plan. So you're effectively locked into Tmobile.

[incision]

I don't follow the logic here at all.

[pavanky]

He was talking about the nexus line, which is free of carrier lock in (we will just ignore CDMA galaxy nexus for now).