content: First of all, software is not hardware.  Never will be, no matter how much they try to confuse the issue by making the firmware ridiculously rewritable and mingling the firmware with user and system data.  Things like this try to confuse the issue of software and hardware in order to provide an obtuse justification for this sort of behavior. Second of all, you're missing the point.  The point is that when you own a computer system, that system should be YOURS.  YOU should be the master of it under all circumstances, NOT the company.  If your memory chip breaks because it was defective and it's under warranty, that's the company's problem, even if you happened to be running another OS at the time.  Arguably, even if they don't help with the OS you're using, they should also be willing to provide a way to restore the original OS to the machine.  In fact, most of the time people don't switch OS's when they root - they just want to be able to have full control over the device, since there are a lot of things you can't do without root, e.g. remove manufacturer crapware that they were paid to put on there, eating up your space on your device and often adding antifeatures of a number of types. The simple fact of the matter is that "more competition" is highly unlikely to draw a resolution to this at this point in the game.  The current trend of technology companies focuses entirely on attaining control and power over the user and their data.  They collude, and it marches deeper and deeper into control of your privacy and life in general.  For there to be an actual competition, the options need to be viable.  Can you walk across the United States instead of using a car?  Sure you can.  Is it practical, desirable, or even close to reasonable in most circumstances?  Not on your life, and I think you know that.  It is not in the interest of any company in a practical position to influence this to offer an "alternative" to this level control.  In many cases, any alternative would be hard pressed to be viable because the colluding companies hold the cards here and the odd man out in the current technological environment gets fucked over for a wide variety of reasons.  Essentially, the companies are using and abusing their position to insert anti-consumer features for their own profit, and are rapidly removing the ability to opt out of the situation while they close off alternatives and gain increasingly tight-fisted control over their computing ecosystem.  Attempting to scare people off of rooting their devices - which is, again, software, not hardware - is the sort of thing needs to be outright forbidden, period.  In fact, their ability to prevent you from rooting should be forbidden, period, unless you enjoy technology companies (and anyone who happens to figure out how to use their back door) having unfettered access to the systems you purportedly own, but are designed to refuse you control.  Worse yet, there are plenty of efforts to make it illegal for you to be able to override these design choices, which consolidates power ever-further into corporate control. The reason that this is cause for celebration is because we're sick of this shit, but have a rapidly shrinking pool of options, which is very much anti-consumer and leads to bullshit like John Deere tractors suddenly being under "lifetime leases" where they can sue you for doing things with the onboard computer that they don't like, and meddle with used cars because the company only "licensed the software" to the original purchaser.  You may lament the problems this poses to the free market, but an oligopoly situation wherein the corporation essentially owns almost all units of one of the most powerful technologies ever created is almost antithetical to the entire concept of a free market and freedom in general, and that is exactly what we're looking at here. Plus:  You can either accept or not, no one is putting a gun to your head.  This analogy is ridiculous, even though it is much beloved.  When every job requires a computer system, then you have the choice of accepting the EULA or living on the street.  Technically you had a choice.  Practically you don't.  Same general situation is rapidly becoming the case with smartphones, and indeed, just about every type of computing device.  And that's one of the main points here.