zlacker

>>kotaKa+(OP)
They have the ecosystem by the balls. Phone manufacturers in recent years have been making unlocking & modifying their devices more and more difficult, google and app developers have been cracking down harder on modded devices by implementing TPM equivalents in the hardware to sign and verify that your system is a google-appproved one, and alternatives still are decades behind in terms of app ecosystem.

I think they might just get away with it.

>>mid-ki+tz
I don't think Google can be blamed for this - their own phones are one of the last which can still be unlocked.

>>jojoba+mB
true, and recently they deserved a lot of credit for publicly releasing their device trees and drivers. unfortunately, with the 10 series pixels they no longer will be releasing device trees, which makes it much more difficult to maintain custom ROMs