The Empty

There was a great WSJ article published this week that tals about how the US cell phone market is controlled by the carriers - Verizon, Tmobile, AT&T, etc.  For those that do not know, for phones that are released in the US, the carriers have the final say on design and software.  In fact, each carrier gets its own custom software build for a phone.  In other words, features are designed for the carrier, not the end customer.  This is back-asswards, hinders innovation and competition, and generally sucks.

In other countries, one goes to a store and buys a cell phone that he or she likes.  Then, you go and buy service for that phone.  You pop in the SIM (since most of the world uses GSM technology) and off you go.  In the US, you go to the carrier and they tell you what phone you can get with the service you want.  The hook is that they subsidize your phone by locking you into a contract and overcharging you for service.  This cycle will be hard to break out of since US customers are used to the 'free phone' from the carrier, but the end result will bring lower prices and better features overall.