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The Unlocked/Unbranded Theory

SpencerUk

Android Enthusiast
Jul 23, 2010
606
77
Barnsley, South Yorkshire
I think no handset is locked or branded to to be honest..3 don't have there's locked or branded, neither does vodafone by the sounds of it, i'm expecting Orange and T-Mobile to be the same.

It would actually make sense as well because then that way everyone will get future updates at the same time instead of operators faffing with updates..cough cough at orange with the Hero!

opinions anyone?
 
Guy in the 3 shop yesterday told me that 3 have no plans to brand theirs, due to customer complaints regarding the desire branding and the wait for the recent update.

vodafone seem to be sending out unlocked unbranded ones at the moment, but as yet no confirmation they will be adding any bloatware, after the issue with the desire on vodafone first having no voda crap, then later ones and an update for allot of none branded ones put the voda crap on them. They still all have a voda software code, but no branding now.

So we will wait and see what happens.

Still trying to decide which network, and whether or not to upgrade, very impressed with the DHD, but not enough to increase my tariff, or pay for the phone.
 
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There is already a firmware code for 3uk floating around.

The locked/branded handsets are coming. It's perfectly normal for the early stock not to be.

Any link to that?

I'd like to have a look at the coding on it :)

There would be no network specific firmware codes if this was the case.

Wait and see, it will happen. HTC don't have the kind of clout to force otherwise.

They don't have the clout, but it would make sense. I mean if you look at how scattered the Hero and Desire updates were via networks, Google got annoyed because the most popular handset of 2009 was running 1.5/6 and Desire was running 2.1...HTC wasn't impressed as the sim free update got out and yet branded ones were stuck, etc

Funny thing is there is a 3UK RUU available on XDA...maybe they backed out

Any link to that?
 
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vodafone seem to be sending out unlocked unbranded ones at the moment, but as yet no confirmation they will be adding any bloatware, after the issue with the desire on vodafone first having no voda crap, then later ones and an update for allot of none branded ones put the voda crap on them. They still all have a voda software code, but no branding now.

Interesting that voda can choose to add bloatware and a lock if they so wish going forward in future updates. Have they done this before with other handsets? i.e. released a phone with no branding/lock and added it at a later date?

And is there a way of changing to stock HTC factory firmware to avoid this?
 
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Vodafone have added a load of crap to the original Desire and the Galaxy S via firmware updates. They rolled back the Desire update but not as yet the Galaxy S one.

In order to do this though, the phone has have an operator code identifying it as a vodafone branded one (even if there is not currently any obvious branding).

It doesn't look like the phones coming from them currently are identified as vodafone models so this shouldn't be a problem (for the time being).
 
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Yes vodafone desires (not DHD) did have vodafone code in them from the start (191) but were unbranded apart from the vodafone internet settings. Later handsets started to arrive with voda bloatware on them, then voda released what everyone thought was the 2.2 update, only to discover that they had now got branded corrupted handsets, with a multitude of issues.

After much hype about this, and much media coverage of this, vodafone back tracked and released a completely unbranded version of the 2.2 update, but it still has a voda software code (191).

As far as I am aware, it would not be possible for the handsets already out there with generic (405) software codes to end up with branded codes on them.

The only way for this to happen would be through htc (which after the vodafone fiasco they claimed they could not change the software to generic, so I assume it is also true for the reverse), or if you root the phone to put it on.

So those with generic code software, will always have this, and always receive updates direct from htc.
 
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