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iPhone Forcing Open Wireless Networks?

Posted by samzenpus on from the open-up dept.

fermion writes "Wired asserts that the iPhone blew up the wireless industry. This article argues that because Apple demanded the opportunity to control their own phone, and ATT née Cingular agreed, other companies are opening up the networks, and Google now has the opportunity to make Android a reality. There are other tidbits. Allegedly Verizon turned Jobs down without even listening to his pitch, a decision they may well regret now that they are hemorrhaging customers. Also, that Motorola and the networks were responsible for the fiasco dubbed the ROKR, something which I believe given how damaged the American version of the RAZR was compared to international version. It also estimates that the iPhone cost upward of $150 million to design, and earns Apple about $200 profit per phone."

4 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. US, welcome to the world by Marcion · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Europe and most of the rest of the world has GSM and GSM alone. You can take a SIM card from any carrier and put it in any phone. It has always been like that.

    --
    My little Linux and tech blog
    1. Re:US, welcome to the world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The UK actually still has a number of handsets per operator that are 'locked' to that network. Whilst it's true that you can get these phones unlocked to take any SIM, it's not free to do so and it's often available from some pretty dodgy looking places.

    2. Re:US, welcome to the world by Alioth · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If so, that'd be like talking about America and only meaning the western USA. I think most people think of the European Union when people talk of Europe (just like people think of the USA when saying America). The European Union includes nearly all of central Europe and most of eastern Europe today. This is almost 4.5M sq. km, so still several times larger than Texas.

      Additionally, the EU has a population of just under 500M people - around 200M more than live in the United States. The EU is a much larger market than all of North America.

      --
      Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
  2. Android FTW! by multiview · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. The headline is horrible. iPhone didn't contribute to wireless networks that are open by some means.

    2. iPhone won't open the market. Android will. Reason: Android is fully customizable. Soon or later Skype[1] or any other VOIP/instant messenging app will be available. Data traffic will become more important than regular POTS calls. Eventually one carrier might step out of line and get out of the entrenchment by offering reasonable data traffic packages. The game theory for this is a prisoners dilema, and we know that all participating players will lose at end. But that's just good for the customers. Technology will dictate it at the end, and it's Google Android that will take the lead here; not iPhone that is tied to carries by contracts.

    [1]Skype itself is a total horrible vendor lockin, but hopefully the protocol gets reverse engineered one day and we will all enjoy open clients. Everyone that uses a multi-protocol client with MSN/ICQ/AIM/JABBER knows that suddenly a single protocol becomes quite easy to replace and hence its power to dictate the rules (as it so for skype at the moment) vanishes.