Hey check this out from WIKI: China China announced in May 2008, that the telecoms sector was re-organized and three 3G networks would be allocated so that the largest mobile operator, China Mobile, would retain its GSM customer base. China Unicom would retain its GSM customer base but relinquish its CDMA2000 customer base, and launch 3G on the globally leading W-CDMA (UMTS) standard. The CDMA2000 customers of China Unicom would go to China Telecom, which would then launch 3G on the CDMA2000 1x EV-DO standard. This meant that China would have all three main cellular technology 3G standards in commercial use. Finally in January 2009, Ministry of industry and Information Technology of China awarded licenses of all three standards: TD-SCDMA to China Mobile, W-CDMA to China Unicom and CDMA2000 to China Telecom. The launch of 3G occurred on 1 October 2009, to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China. By August 2011, China Telecom's 3G subscriber has exceeded 23 million [14].

Like I said before, given that I was there last week, and last year, and the year before that, and I used my CDMA VZ phone, I think I would know. How can you tell me I'm wrong? JFGIA

Given that I was there last week, and it is, I would know.

China uses the same tech as Verizon, CDMA. That being said, taking a VZ phone will put a MAJOR dent in your wallet for data. Last I checked, Verizon was charging $20.00 per MEGABYTE for overseas data and $65/mo global voice package. Yes, you read that right. Pretty much all the electronics are dirt cheap over there. I'd recommend buying a throwaway phone when you get there. Since you don't have a "permanent" number now, getting an in country phone number doesn't seem like it'd be an issue.

What Google needs to force is unlocked bootloaders & carriers maintaining their code in the source tree, so that users can update their version whenever they want... IE - Nexus stylee

The difference here is that in addition to his death, we gained Intel from his compund in the form of harddrives, usb sticks, DVDs, etc. Presumably, these devices contain tons of useful information about the people involved. I'd bet that they've already started acting on that intel, and that the end is near for UBL's branch of AQ. So yes, it will change something. It's like chopping off the head of a snake, but at the same time siphoning out the contents of its brain.

Isn't the dollar already worthless?

are you that you don't have one of these already???

My point was this: open source is winning.

I think if you read between the lines, in the end this is about open source vs closed source. Apple & RIM made a conscious decision to produce their own devices. Microsoft sells their mobile OS specifically to run on other hardware, and makes you pay for implementation support. Google just gives the OS away, with a business-friendly Apache license, with very little to no support (Which by the way has spawned a whole new industry). Apart from that, this report is pretty meaningless. I'd be interested to see how much total revenue/profit Google/Microsoft/Apple/RIM generate directly or indirectly from their respective OS's. It would paint a better picture of who is "winning" the mobile OS war, but we'll never see a report like that...

I find it amusing that Verizon is selling this MiFi, then charging you a monthly service fee to use it, since for $30 bucks one time you can load WMWiFiRouter software onto any Windows Mobile device and have it do the same, without paying $50 a month for the MiFi dataplan, OR a $15/month tethering fee (double score! No cable or extra fee), paying $200 for the privilege of lugging around an extra device. Sure I may not be able to take calls and use the Interwebs, but I didn't want to take those calls in the first place.

I thought they fired off an actual green rocket with green flame! No my nick was not inspired by this post.

This was exactly what I had in mind when I bought my 12 gauge.