A Plan For A Brighter Android Future

[pbj420]

When I first bought my Droid, didn't know anything about Linux, rooting, roms, or how to sbf a phone back to health. That was 8 months ago. I have bricked and bootlooped my phone 100 or more times. And I still have the same phone. What I'm getting at, is that we shouldn't be looking at the carriers to do something. Maybe we start with ourselves. Like making it harder to get some the files needed for root. All I'm trying to really say is that the majority of people want things in the here and now. No one wants to take the time to read and understand. All the info is on the forums. If one can not take the time to read and understand everything before trying to root, then they don't need to root. The guides are so well written, I didn't even have to ask a question on how to do something. Let alone go to Verizon. Maybe the forums should require a time lentgh on memberships not just being able to sign up to get access to these files.

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums

 

[OneTenderRebel]

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about P3Droids stats which now seem to be the center of a lot of controversy.

I started this thread stating that in my eyes P3Droid has lost all credibility, but honestly that comment stemmed from my frustration regarding the manner he went about distributing information, not necessarily the information itself.

Now lets clear some things up right now. My source confirmed entirely that they are able to track those users who tether, did P3Droid not say that long before me? Considering that he did, does that not add the validity of his other statements.

Now lets continue. My source did not say that 1-2% of vzn users were root users, anonymous stated that 1-2% are users that tether illegally. So we are not comparing the right statistical data. I will see if I can find out about confirming the actual root user percentage.

But now lets talk about if it is even possible for there to be that many root users. I am actually leaning towards yes. Why? Hear me out.

Lets put aside the fact that maybe I am more technically inclined then your average bear, because that just helped me get up to speed much faster... but my reasons which initiated my journey towards root are those that would hold true for many users I believe.

So how did it begin?

I got my phone, and it was great.. sweet droid! hooray. What was the first app I downloaded? The newb app. ATK. Why? Because it was the first app on the market that gave me the perception of control over my OS, plus my knowledge stemmed from being a Windows user, where task killing is entirely relevant.

Then what?

I noticed that I killed apps and they reappeared as active processes...?

Hmm... this is strange I thought.. what the heck is going on.

Then I was looking at all this bloatware... and I was like.. why do I have to kill it... why can't I just remove it... what is going on? This is a computer.. why can't I uninstall software which obviously isn't essential to the OS functioning.

So then I did a google search. How to remove CityID?

Then what did I find... a bunch of resources about removing bloatware. Then I searched about task killers not working... what did I find? That they aren't needed on android OS. Then what did I see...?

Root...Root...Root. You need to root to remove bloat. I thought.. hmmn... ok.

What are the risk vs. rewards. Then I found out that I could tether for free. Woot. I am in! At this point... many people would probably do more research to make sure they wouldn't mess up... but I am a little different I suppose. 7 days after purchasing my device, I was typing in adb commands into cmd prompt to root this thing.

Please note. That up until this point. I had not registered to ONE forum. In fact, the notion didn't even cross my mind. The only thing I need is google.

I rooted, removed bloat, tethered, and things were sweet. My phone was faster.

The first time I joined a forum, was because I was trying to get QuickDesk to work with LauncherPro, because at the time, the single tap, and double tap, were conflicting. My first post was actually a SOLUTION procedure, to my own attempt to solve this problem on this forum.

After that... almost all of my posts were aimed to help others. Until I decided to check out what all this ROM and theme nonsense was about.

That is the first time I asked a question.. because there seemed to be a lot of conflicting posts about which ROM was the illest. So I started a thread and started getting feedback. This is when I became really into android and learned all the advanced stuff.

But in my opinion. I think that there are probably ALOT of people, who rooted simply to remove bloat, and tether. And by those assumptions. I think that their could be multi million root users.

My main problem with P3Droids statement, is the nature of these stats.

How EXACTLY are these stats obtained?

I know he said that they were obtained by stats they got when pushing OTA's... but that doesn't seem like it can be accurate...? How could it be? There are so many variables that can affect that.

Also.... What is the time frame of these stats? Is this the root users of ALL TIME? Or is the data regarding the present number of root users? When did the tracking begin? And how is this database being updated?

Without knowing these things... I just can't take that number at face value. If this other information were provided... it would be much easier to judge its validity.

{{ WugFresh }}

I agree removing bloat is one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, people root. But honestly I just don't think there are that many people out there who care enough to go through the process of rooting just to remove bloat from their phones. I mean I say not that many in a relative way, it could be few hundred thousand which is a big number but compared to the 70 million smartphone users in the USA alone, it's not.

 

[WugFresh]

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about P3Droids stats which now seem to be the center of a lot of controversy.

I started this thread stating that in my eyes P3Droid has lost all credibility, but honestly that comment stemmed from my frustration regarding the manner he went about distributing information, not necessarily the information itself.

Now lets clear some things up right now. My source confirmed entirely that they are able to track those users who tether, did P3Droid not say that long before me? Considering that he did, does that not add the validity of his other statements.

Now lets continue. My source did not say that 1-2% of vzn users were root users, anonymous stated that 1-2% are users that tether illegally. So we are not comparing the right statistical data. I will see if I can find out about confirming the actual root user percentage.

But now lets talk about if it is even possible for there to be that many root users. I am actually leaning towards yes. Why? Hear me out.

Lets put aside the fact that maybe I am more technically inclined then your average bear, because that just helped me get up to speed much faster... but my reasons which initiated my journey towards root are those that would hold true for many users I believe.

So how did it begin?

I got my phone, and it was great.. sweet droid! hooray. What was the first app I downloaded? The newb app. ATK. Why? Because it was the first app on the market that gave me the perception of control over my OS, plus my knowledge stemmed from being a Windows user, where task killing is entirely relevant.

Then what?

I noticed that I killed apps and they reappeared as active processes...?

Hmm... this is strange I thought.. what the heck is going on.

Then I was looking at all this bloatware... and I was like.. why do I have to kill it... why can't I just remove it... what is going on? This is a computer.. why can't I uninstall software which obviously isn't essential to the OS functioning.

So then I did a google search. How to remove CityID?

Then what did I find... a bunch of resources about removing bloatware. Then I searched about task killers not working... what did I find? That they aren't needed on android OS. Then what did I see...?

Root...Root...Root. You need to root to remove bloat. I thought.. hmmn... ok.

What are the risk vs. rewards. Then I found out that I could tether for free. Woot. I am in! At this point... many people would probably do more research to make sure they wouldn't mess up... but I am a little different I suppose. 7 days after purchasing my device, I was typing in adb commands into cmd prompt to root this thing.

Please note. That up until this point. I had not registered to ONE forum. In fact, the notion didn't even cross my mind. The only thing I need is google.

I rooted, removed bloat, tethered, and things were sweet. My phone was faster.

The first time I joined a forum, was because I was trying to get QuickDesk to work with LauncherPro, because at the time, the single tap, and double tap, were conflicting. My first post was actually a SOLUTION procedure, to my own attempt to solve this problem on this forum.

After that... almost all of my posts were aimed to help others. Until I decided to check out what all this ROM and theme nonsense was about.

That is the first time I asked a question.. because there seemed to be a lot of conflicting posts about which ROM was the illest. So I started a thread and started getting feedback. This is when I became really into android and learned all the advanced stuff.

But in my opinion. I think that there are probably ALOT of people, who rooted simply to remove bloat, and tether. And by those assumptions. I think that their could be multi million root users.

My main problem with P3Droids statement, is the nature of these stats.

How EXACTLY are these stats obtained?

I know he said that they were obtained by stats they got when pushing OTA's... but that doesn't seem like it can be accurate...? How could it be? There are so many variables that can affect that.

Also.... What is the time frame of these stats? Is this the root users of ALL TIME? Or is the data regarding the present number of root users? When did the tracking begin? And how is this database being updated?

Without knowing these things... I just can't take that number at face value. If this other information were provided... it would be much easier to judge its validity.

{{ WugFresh }}

I agree removing bloat is one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, people root. But honestly I just don't think there are that many people out there who care enough to go through the process of rooting just to remove bloat from their phones. I mean I say not that many in a relative way, it could be few hundred thousand which is a big number but compared to the 70 million smartphone users in the USA alone, it's not.

why not..? These days its as easy as z4root and Tibackup. Done. Two apps.

 

[OneTenderRebel]

why not..? These days its as easy as z4root and Tibackup. Done. Two apps.

right but how do people know about these apps? They have to come to a forum to find them. Member or lurker the numbers still don't add up.

 

[czerdrill]

I think people on this forum give android users WAYYYY too much credit lol. They really believe that the majority of android users bought their phone because they did some kind of research, or are super smart and not because of the commercials with lasers.

Wug, here's how I rooted. I have a background in computer science, I've been using Linux for as long as I can remember, when I heard about android before I even got a phone I read about it and learned it was based on Linux. I immediately thought cool there should be a way to gain root access to this thing. When I got my phone, I joined DF the first day, and started asking questions about rooting and rooted within the first week I believe.

However, I had plenty of questions, and still ask questions. I've made an app, I've cooked my own ROM, I've made my own themes, I've hacked this thing as much as I can, and there's still plenty that I have zero idea about. The difference is when someone says something that I dont' know, I ask questions about it, rather then get on my knees and start worshipping the dev who said it. On DF that's not the case. Everyone just takes everything at face value and insults the people who actually ask the right questions.

My point is, if I, a person who has been using Linux for as long as I can remember, needed help at some point, there is no way that 30-60% of android users just rooted, remove bloatware and did everything peachy keen without asking questions. The only way that would be possible, is if you truly believed that android users are geniuses who are smarter then all other smartphone users.

You may have done it, and thousands of others may have done it with no questions asked, but 30-60%? No way. 300,000 is probably a good estimate of the combined amounts of people registered on all the android forums. That's 0.4%. By your numbers (or P3 whoever) you're saying between 20M and 41M people are rooted, and that essentially 20M and 41M people did this without ever registering on some site somewhere to ask questions. (This is assuming that there are 69M android users worldwide...don't quote me on exact numbers, just going by what was posted earlier). I'm sorry...to say that on average 30M people rooted without any help makes no sense. At all.

 

[WugFresh]

Hmm.. you make a good point. But think about the fact that people have the same questions. Chances that you stumble upon a thread with your questions already answered are very high. Still the number is rather large.

{{ WugFresh }}

 

[czerdrill]

Oh absolutely. Most of the questions are in fact "How do I root!?" But you know and I know, that people don't search haha...the reason you get the same thread over and over and over and over again is because people dont want to spend time searching. So yes, I am sure there are thousands who do search before asking, but there's not millions, and there sure as hell aren't 30 million. If there are, we need to start a community with them. These people might have internet etiquette down to a T! LOL

 

[OneTenderRebel]

When I first joined the forum it was right before the 2.1 update hit. That was probably the biggest jump in members I remember from this forum. I was one of the kids on the sidelines who didn't have much to say but I joined and did the force update (non-rooted). I had no intentions of rooting until I started reading the threads in here about it. But there were literally thousands of members here who joined just to get the forced update. And that has happened with every update since. Anytime a new update is available just watch the member count in the forum jump. People, generally speaking, only join the forum when they are ready to take action on something.

I just wish there truly was a way to track the number of rooted users. I am so interested in that number and it really stinks there is no way to find it.

 

[Inverse]

I'm not on board when the very Android community seems to be supporting the idea that paying MORE for data you're already paying for, simply because you choose to use it on another device~ is somehow justifiable. If the concern is that rooted tethered users use TOO much data, then CAP it... don't charge me simply because I want to use the data I already pay way too much money for, on a bigger monitor and keyboard. It's a KVM tax. We're not the thieves here.

 

[nerdslogic]

I think people on this forum give android users WAYYYY too much credit lol. They really believe that the majority of android users bought their phone because they did some kind of research, or are super smart and not because of the commercials with lasers.

We have commercials with lasers? Where have I been?

 

[nerdslogic]

I'm not on board when the very Android community seems to be supporting the idea that paying MORE for data you're already paying for, simply because you choose to use it on another device~ is somehow justifiable.

I think all VZW customers do that though. If you pay a seperate rate for text messages than you do for data then you are paying twice for something that you already have.

I am really getting irritated with VZW justifying text messages NOT being data. Correct me if I am wrong but aren't they the same?

 

[czerdrill]

I think people on this forum give android users WAYYYY too much credit lol. They really believe that the majority of android users bought their phone because they did some kind of research, or are super smart and not because of the commercials with lasers.

We have commercials with lasers? Where have I been?

No idea, I don't think there's been one android commercial for verizon that hasn't included lasers lol

 

[Inverse]

I'm not on board when the very Android community seems to be supporting the idea that paying MORE for data you're already paying for, simply because you choose to use it on another device~ is somehow justifiable.

I think all VZW customers do that though. If you pay a seperate rate for text messages than you do for data then you are paying twice for something that you already have.

I am really getting irritated with VZW justifying text messages NOT being data. Correct me if I am wrong but aren't they the same?

SMS is on a completely different system. Your phone and your data can go down and SMS can still be up. Still don't see a fee being charged for them considering how small they are~ it really is a ripoff, but they have a reason to keep them separated.

 

[OneTenderRebel]

I think people on this forum give android users WAYYYY too much credit lol. They really believe that the majority of android users bought their phone because they did some kind of research, or are super smart and not because of the commercials with lasers.

We have commercials with lasers? Where have I been?

You know I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!

 

[nerdslogic]

I think people on this forum give android users WAYYYY too much credit lol. They really believe that the majority of android users bought their phone because they did some kind of research, or are super smart and not because of the commercials with lasers.

We have commercials with lasers? Where have I been?

No idea, I don't think there's been one android commercial for verizon that hasn't included lasers lol

really?.....off to Youtube I go....BRB

I'm not on board when the very Android community seems to be supporting the idea that paying MORE for data you're already paying for, simply because you choose to use it on another device~ is somehow justifiable.

I think all VZW customers do that though. If you pay a seperate rate for text messages than you do for data then you are paying twice for something that you already have.

I am really getting irritated with VZW justifying text messages NOT being data. Correct me if I am wrong but aren't they the same?

SMS is on a completely different system. Your phone and your data can go down and SMS can still be up. Still don't see a fee being charged for them considering how small they are~ it really is a ripoff, but they have a reason to keep them separated.

ok....see I didn't notice that....and yes I agree....it's still a ripoff

I think people on this forum give android users WAYYYY too much credit lol. They really believe that the majority of android users bought their phone because they did some kind of research, or are super smart and not because of the commercials with lasers.

We have commercials with lasers? Where have I been?

You know I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!

:gotmyvote: