While Sony Sues Modders, Samsung Sends Them Devices To Mod Faster

[Galaki]

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We've talked plenty of times about Sony's long history of trying to block tinkerers and modders, culminating in the company's absolutely ridiculous lawsuit against Geohot (George Hotz) for jailbreaking the PS3. It appears that Samsung is taking an extremely different approach. Rather than trying to restrict or hinder modders, the company just sent a bunch of free smartphones to some of the top modders:

Four members of the CyanogenMod software team on Monday received Galaxy S II smartphones in the mail, direct from the company at no charge.

“All four of us involved in the porting process for the first Galaxy S received a new phone,” CyanogenMod team member Kolja Dummann told Wired.com in an interview. “After the [Galaxy S II] launched in Europe, we just asked about getting some of those phones. Samsung agreed.”

The phones came with one simple directive — get CyanogenMod working on the phone.

Essentially, CyanogenMod replaces the stock operating system on your Android phone with a customized build, letting you make tweaks and adjustments that you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to before. Customizations range from changing visual details — like slapping a sleek new uniform skins onto the user interface — to under-the-hood boosts like overclocking the phone’s CPU.

Think about that for a second. Unlike most device makers, who jealously try to lock down the device, Samsung hasn't just handed over its devices early, but it's specifically encouraging them to get their replacement/modded OS working on the phone as quickly as possible. Which strategy do you think is likely to create loyalty, win fans, and lead to greater innovation and value for users?