Comment The mobile phone industry needs an enema... (Score 1) 409
and Apple stands as good a chance as anyone of providing one. Our choices are currently limited by the fact that the phone manufacturers are beholden to the carriers. I have a Nokia E61, a phone you can't currently get (as a standard offering from your carrier) because it offers WiFi and SIP VoIP as a standard feature. You can get the dumbed-down E62 from Cingular (which has the WiFi chip yanked and the SIP software missing). If you want truly advanced mobile features, you need to get the carriers out of the way.
Apple is the only company to date to take on the challenge of putting the carriers in their place. Savvy consumers want the carriers to provide the basic service of moving bits from one place to another as inexpensively as possible. Carriers, on the other hand, want to be the alpha and omega of wireless communication, and the gateway to all features (for a price). While I have no objection to anyone making money, I think the carrier-as-god model is patently stupid. In many other parts of the world the carriers are just that -- common carriers. You get your phone from somebody else. You get features from somebody else. The carrier is simply a bit pipe.
If anybody can force a change in the current model in place in the States, it will be Apple. Ignore Dvorak (King of the Trolls) and help Apple break the strangle hold that Cingular, Verizon and Sprint have on the mobile market.
Apple is the only company to date to take on the challenge of putting the carriers in their place. Savvy consumers want the carriers to provide the basic service of moving bits from one place to another as inexpensively as possible. Carriers, on the other hand, want to be the alpha and omega of wireless communication, and the gateway to all features (for a price). While I have no objection to anyone making money, I think the carrier-as-god model is patently stupid. In many other parts of the world the carriers are just that -- common carriers. You get your phone from somebody else. You get features from somebody else. The carrier is simply a bit pipe.
If anybody can force a change in the current model in place in the States, it will be Apple. Ignore Dvorak (King of the Trolls) and help Apple break the strangle hold that Cingular, Verizon and Sprint have on the mobile market.
