Just some rambling thoughts........I cant say that I have completely thought thru this, but my gut tells me that sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for.
Admittedly, we all want the the very best phone that we can get, make or mod....That is probably the main reason we are all here....Sites such as this are the basis for alot of the innovation that comes to the phones (in my old dumbass opinion), however competition within industry is also the fuel for creating new technology etc. Apple comes out with the Iphone and go exclusively with ATT....Ok, IMO the Iphone is a great toy with phone capabilities.....NOT on the same level (IMO) as the PPC that we tend to use....Now perhaps some of the innovation and advancement of the WinMobile (or Window Phone or whatever they are calling it now) would NOT have come without that spirit of competition....Iphone for awhile swept the market, AT&T reaped some of the benefits.....In response (IMO) came the advancements in the Mogul, Touch, TP and now the TP2, Blackberry, LG etc etc etc....Apple has had to work to try to keep its audience.......
The competition aspect has also led to perhaps one of the most important aspects of innovation, education....People who originally thought that the Iphone was the pinnacle of technology began to learn that devices (OK, yes my bias is to the HTC PPC's) have other benefits OUTSIDE of the Iphone....As it stands now, MS is looking at opening the app store similar (at least in theory) to the ITunes thing....another breed of competition...
Further as people began to become more educated many people started to learn that there are better options, depending on your needs....The PPC (IMO) is a superior computing device....the Iphone is a better toy.....
As for carriers.....each has their selling points.......The competition does help the market.......what i fear is that if everything is opened up that the companies merge, fold or will be regulated to the point that choice and competition will be stifled...As competition is stifled, the incentive for creating bigger and better diminishes.....As an example, many of hte national brand name carriers (ATT, VZW, Sprint, T-Mob) will have advantages or disadvantages that are unique....The consumer then gets to choose what they want or what they dont want........Now throw in the "Off brands" (Cricket, All-tel, US Cellular etc)...that perhaps can offer many of the advantages of the National brand carriers, but perhaps with some limitations...they all carry cell phone calls and have varying degrees of add-ons for varying prices (data plans etc)....I personally carry Cricket as my provider.....I pay a little under $60/month for unlimited everything (truly unlimited).....The downside is that if I travel outside of my home area, I have to make accomdations for bucket minutes or have roaming in my plan (I have some roaming in my plan, still for the same amount).......So my trade is true unlimited, but with issues if I travel.......since i dont see myself traveling anywhere anytime in the near future, that trade is worth it to me....
All in all, the choices that we all face regarding our individual devices and carriers are (IMO ) a benefit to the consumer........Each and all have drawbacks, but those of us in here, who work to make our devices better are leaders in the innovation of newer and better things to come.....
to sum up......caveat emptor.......
