The Android system is becoming more and more mature, are you still using third-party ROMs?

The term "flashing" has almost no status today. The main reason is that even international giants such as Samsung and LG have increasingly perfected their own mobile phone systems, and are increasingly aware of what intelligence and humanization mean, not to mention a large number of domestic customized ROMs, such as Flyme, MIUI, Hydrogen OS, and Smartisan OS. You can't find a few ROMs that are more distinctive and reliable than theirs among a bunch of third-party ROMs.

Moqu, Baidu Cloud, LeWa, Dianxin, CM, these OS that are familiar to old mobile phone players are gradually shrinking. The sharp drop in the number of users has led to low traffic, and the living environment for developers has become increasingly harsh. The phenomena of package theft, fake packages, and shoddy products are still difficult to eliminate today. Although third-party ROM development cannot be regarded as an industry, it can also be regarded as a small "industrial chain". Problems arise one after another. Why are they happening?

Although there are fewer and fewer competitors, there is still no meat to eat

First of all, we need to understand who are the people who develop third-party ROMs. They may be small teams or just one or two amateur players. You can call them "programmers" because the code quality of developers with solid technical skills is not necessarily worse than that of full-time programmers of mobile phone manufacturers. The problem lies in the profit model.

The survival space of third-party ROMs is being squeezed. In theory, there are fewer and fewer competitors, but few developers can laugh at the end, because third-party ROMs rely on traffic growth to magnify profits. The simplest and most direct way is to implant designated advertising cooperation APPs. As far as I know, the unit price of implanting an APP ranges from a few cents to two or three yuan. In order to "grab business", some developers even package more than a dozen APPs and charge low advertising fees. But mobile phone manufacturers can also do this! And with sales as a guarantee, the traffic efficiency is much higher than that of third-party ROMs.

Another core reason is that the ROMs of mobile phone manufacturers are growing very fast. The efficiency and goals of small teams or even individual employees are definitely not as good as those of professional teams of mobile phone manufacturers. In addition, with the assistance of UI design and market big data, many mobile phone manufacturers' own ROMs are becoming more and more beautiful and easier to use. Both the experience and the update and iteration speed are far faster than third-party ROMs. (For example, if you want to flash a third-party MIUI on a OnePlus phone, it is not the real MIUI, but a MIUI developed based on Hydrogen OS. The underlying system is still Hydrogen OS, but it is covered with MIUI. Whether it is system stability or photo quality, it is impossible to compare with the latest official ROM)

Another ridiculous reason is that manufacturers release too many new products every year, and it is impossible for developers to keep up with the update speed of more than a dozen devices a year, such as Meizu and Xiaomi. Therefore, whether it is the professionalism, efficiency or position of the team, third-party ROMs have been in a very disadvantageous position from the beginning.

Mobile phone manufacturers will not give in.

I don't know if you still remember that Luo Yonghao once proposed the idea of ​​allowing users to unlock the bootloader, but later seemed to be "stopped" by engineers, so in the end there was news that Luo Yonghao broke his promise and was even sued by Hammer phone users. We can only say that Luo Yonghao may be a kind-hearted, broad-minded and generous fat man, but the engineer's stop is not without reason: because unlocking the bootloader almost means that their own ROM is naked in front of others, which gives other manufacturers and third-party ROMs the opportunity to insert mobile phones, which is equivalent to weaving a wedding dress for the opponent. Even small manufacturers need to guard against this problem.

Not opening the bootloader unlocking can indeed protect the privacy and security information of users to the greatest extent, but this is just an "excuse" to follow the trend. The fundamental reason is still profit-driven. The number of users is the most important data for mobile phone manufacturers, especially in the current period of declining hardware revenue, software revenue is even more important. For example, MIUI is proud of the tens of millions of activations every year, and the billions of advertising revenue every year is enough to make many mobile phone manufacturers jealous. Of course, the fat pork of mobile phone ROM is protected as much as possible. Each company has drawn a line in the sand, and it is difficult for third-party ROM to intervene.

The era of hacking has long gone

Flashing ROM to mobile phones is not a skill to be proud of in the eyes of today's young people. On the contrary, it is a bit redundant. Spending precious time and trial and error costs to experience unknown ROMs seems too redundant in the face of increasingly mature official ROMs. As those of us born in the 1990s and 1980s are getting older, most of our time is occupied by family and work, and our enthusiasm for flashing ROMs has faded. Due to consumption upgrades, those born in the 2000s are directly facing a large number of excellent smartphones. They no longer need to flash their phones for "overclocking" and small plug-ins. The older generation of enthusiasts have officially retired.

summary

Although the living space of third-party ROMs is constantly being squeezed, there will still be small teams that are mainly interested in individual products that can survive. By actively adapting to more models and selfless donations from users, the daily living expenses of developers are still not a problem. The most highly anticipated domestic ROM: MIUI. Every year, developers actively adapt MIUI to more mobile phones. This is equivalent to picking up official leaks, but it is also a small way out. Moreover, as long as CM, the most authoritative third-party ROM team, does not fall, the vane of enthusiasts will not fall. This team that threatens to shoot Google in the head still has a huge influence overseas. As long as there are still a small number of users with special needs, this small number of third-party ROM teams will not fall, but they are indeed unable to escape the fate of being a niche.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.