Although it might allow them to get greater penetration in the Catholic priest market segment.

Typically it isn't the priest being penetrated...

So if you can't crack it, but you can bypass the challenge, do you still win?

http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/soyoudidit.asp

So once you have your phone, and your lengthy contract, there is no incentive for the vendor/carrier to perform an upgrade. They are technically delivering you your phone service with some "smart" features tacked on. All vendors are doing this, so there is churn at the end of contracts, but it will probably be a wash with everyone leaving their respective carrier for another one. Upgrades introduce regressions, and fixing those costs money, and that would eat into profits.

If the underlaying OS and the DE were split apart, or better yet, there was a firmware hooks to the radios that had standard calls from the OS, maybe there'd be a chance of some success here.(I'm thinking of how the original Xbox loaded the dashboard for XBMC) As long as you're tied to your vendors to provide your upgrades to you, you might as well be as closed source as anything that Microsoft puts out.

Seems WSJ is checking referrers

Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. said they have agreed formally on a chip-making venture that will start operations next fiscal year.

In line with an accord in October, Toshiba will buy some of Sony's 300-millimeter-wafer production lines in western Japan for about 90 billion yen ($835 million). The companies said the deal will be completed by the end of March, and Toshiba will lease facilities to the venture, which will start operations April 1.

The venture will be 60% held by Toshiba, 20% by Sony and 20% by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., Sony's game unit. The venture, which will be capitalized at 100 million yen, will make advanced chips used in Sony's PlayStation game consoles as well as in Toshiba's digital consumer goods.