I actually work for a major US wireless carrier, in the department that handles data content and services. I'm not equipped to defend every decision or offering that the carriers have made over the years. However, reading through most of the comments, there is one point I haven't seen made yet...
In the US, when a customer buys a device + service plan, a certain business relationship is formed between user and carrier, and most Americans tend to associate their carrier to everything about their phone. Therefore, if something breaks, whether it was the fault of the carrier or the phone manufacturer or the developer of the application... the customer always calls the carrier first! To put it another way, the carrier always takes the blame. Reread some of the posts above, you'll see what I mean.
I don't know about the other carriers, but this one therefore spends A LOT of time testing handsets and certifying applications. If there is a particular feature that can't be certified, it will probably be "locked down." Not because there is a desire to hamstring the customer, but because the customer will get pissed when it breaks. And the carrier gets to clean up the mess.
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I actually work for a major US wireless carrier, in the department that handles data content and services. I'm not equipped to defend every decision or offering that the carriers have made over the years. However, reading through most of the comments, there is one point I haven't seen made yet...
In the US, when a customer buys a device + service plan, a certain business relationship is formed between user and carrier, and most Americans tend to associate their carrier to everything about their phone. Therefore, if something breaks, whether it was the fault of the carrier or the phone manufacturer or the developer of the application... the customer always calls the carrier first! To put it another way, the carrier always takes the blame. Reread some of the posts above, you'll see what I mean.
I don't know about the other carriers, but this one therefore spends A LOT of time testing handsets and certifying applications. If there is a particular feature that can't be certified, it will probably be "locked down." Not because there is a desire to hamstring the customer, but because the customer will get pissed when it breaks. And the carrier gets to clean up the mess.