The real consequences of the Motorola deal?

AuroraByte

It worries me a little. If Motorola takes over, so to speak, what's stopping Google from locking their phones and Android down? Which will make it ever harder to run pretty basic apps on a Graphene device (it's already a fuss getting a lot of banking apps etc to work). And Motorola, being alone in offering a device that has the necessary security for government and corporations, can increase their prices manifold, knowing that states and big corporations can easily afford them. Having a bunch of rich and powerful people using GrapheneOS won't be a concern for Google, since their business model is tracking the 99% of people with regular phones, not spying on powerful individuals. So in the end, mobile security and privacy becomes a luxury reserved for the rich, even more than now. Motorola wants to make money on selling hardware, Google wants to make money by making sure regular people can't escape their ecosystem.

MetropleX

AuroraByte there is no "deal" it is a working non exclusive partnership, where Motorola reached out to us for our help and assistance in bringing up their flagship device offerings to the standards we have always had laid out in our documentation. They saw the value of what we could provide.

We still remain available and open to any and all OEMs who may wish to do the same, while also having our own ambitions too.

nologo

The real consequences of the Motorola deal will be the existence of some extra devices GrapheneOS can be installed on, next to the Pixel devices which are already supported. That's it. Motorola is not "taking over" anything and from Google's perspective this will not be a big deal (if they even notice at all).

not-a-rola

MetropleX We still remain available and open to any and all OEMs who may wish to do the same

https://nitter.net/GrapheneOS/status/2028464663122313627#m

We currently have our hands full and aren't capable of working with another OEM right now. Our partnership with Motorola isn't exclusive but there's a whole lot of work to do and supporting more devices is not easy while meeting our production quality and security expectations.

AuroraByte

MetropleX Of course. I'm aware that it's not an exlusive deal, I just worry that the net effect will be more expensive and less user-friendly devices for the average person (since Google certainly will be doing what they can to make the switch as cumbersome as possible).

The best possible scenario would be even more OEMs doing this, of course, but they'll be directly at war with Google.

fid03

not-a-rola Those quotes don't seem to contradict each other, if that's what you're implying; An org can always have their hands full in the present and still remain open to any future partnerships.

MetropleX

fid03 precisely, the operative element of the quote is in the first sentence, "right now". The door is still open.

MetropleX

AuroraByte not likely the phones being made compatible is bringing the HW to the same standard as Pixels, both Motorola and Pixels will still be a GMS licensees with their own OS as they have now, the devices from Moto will simply be able to support our OS like Pixels already do. Nothing is changing. This is not a major OEM undermining the GMS licensing model.

de0u

AuroraByte Google certainly will be doing what they can to make the switch as cumbersome as possible.

I wonder how that is known.

Google has not been "doing what they can" to lock third-party operating systems out of Pixel hardware. They continue to release new devices with unlockable and relockable bootloaders.

not-a-rola

de0u They continue to release new devices with unlockable and relockable bootloaders.

A token is required to unlock bootloader for the first time. Google can refuse providing them any time.

de0u

not-a-rola A token is required to unlock bootloader for the first time. Google can refuse providing them any time.

But so far they don't. So they're not "doing what they can" to get in the way. Perhaps some day they might "do what they can". Perhaps one day the EU will mandate locked bootloaders... many bad things might happen.