When I left my company, I had to get a new phone. When I talked to the rep, the phone cost was essentially free with a contract.
The offer was that Verizon would pay for the phone over the course of three years.
So it’s not financing so much as it was free with a contract. When I asked why this was, he said that it was due to how the market was. Everyone has a phone at this point so now cell service provides have to compete to keep people. So they are willing to pay for your phone so long as you are locked in with them.
I remember when carriers not just locked the phones, they also had custom firmwares filled with bloat and customized skins and even locking down features and all that shit. For example, I had a Sony Ericsson K700i and it had a disgustingly customized FW on it, and aside that it was ugly, I could only play MP3 files that I purchased through Vodafone. Sending them via bluetooth (or even with IR) didn’t work, the phone refused to play it back.
(Then of course I found out that Sony Ericssons were pretty moddable phones so I replaced the FW with an original one and that solved all my problems. For some reasons, the fact that I patched the FW with countless of VKP patches and even unlocking it with a patch, didn’t void my warranty so whenever I fucked up the FW beyond my abilities to repair it or simply bricked it, I just sent it to Vodafone and they fixed it.)
And they did this even when Android became a thing. (Though, it was a Vodafone branded phone so… it was sort of OK. (technically it was a Huawei though, also pretty moddable phone))
I loved firmware modding on pre-smart phones! My first eBay purchase ever (with the help of my parents) was a USB cable for the ridiculously large port on my flip phone. I blew my friends’ minds with my custom text on the front panel
I don’t think I’ve had a locked phone since around 2012.
I’m guessing people still get them because they need financing? Seems like a poor choice most of the time.
Because a locked loader only really affects an absurdly small percentage of people.
That is a separate issue. This is a lock to prevent use with other service providers,
Which people don’t care about. They were getting a new phone when they switched.
When I left my company, I had to get a new phone. When I talked to the rep, the phone cost was essentially free with a contract.
The offer was that Verizon would pay for the phone over the course of three years.
So it’s not financing so much as it was free with a contract. When I asked why this was, he said that it was due to how the market was. Everyone has a phone at this point so now cell service provides have to compete to keep people. So they are willing to pay for your phone so long as you are locked in with them.
I remember when carriers not just locked the phones, they also had custom firmwares filled with bloat and customized skins and even locking down features and all that shit. For example, I had a Sony Ericsson K700i and it had a disgustingly customized FW on it, and aside that it was ugly, I could only play MP3 files that I purchased through Vodafone. Sending them via bluetooth (or even with IR) didn’t work, the phone refused to play it back.
(Then of course I found out that Sony Ericssons were pretty moddable phones so I replaced the FW with an original one and that solved all my problems. For some reasons, the fact that I patched the FW with countless of VKP patches and even unlocking it with a patch, didn’t void my warranty so whenever I fucked up the FW beyond my abilities to repair it or simply bricked it, I just sent it to Vodafone and they fixed it.)
And they did this even when Android became a thing. (Though, it was a Vodafone branded phone so… it was sort of OK. (technically it was a Huawei though, also pretty moddable phone))
I loved firmware modding on pre-smart phones! My first eBay purchase ever (with the help of my parents) was a USB cable for the ridiculously large port on my flip phone. I blew my friends’ minds with my custom text on the front panel