celgins - 9:27 pm on Dec 27, 2009 (gmt 0)

Define tied.

"...and loathe the $150-$200 early termination fees. [in referencing users in the U.S.]"

Many users feel tied to their carrier because of these fees, and refuse to leave because of said fees. If you ask cell phone users to list their biggest complaints, my guess would be: 1) Dropped calls; 2) Not enough voice/data usage minutes; 3) Being tied to 1 or 2-year contracts.

No one would feel tied to these contracts if there were no $150-$200 early termination fees. Folks would simply move wherever they got the biggest bang for their mobile buck.

In Southern Califonia, Verizon is the defacto leader in coverage as you go deeper into the desert and mountains so it's virtually the only choice so swapping carriers is kind of a moot point.

Yeah, but that's only one part of the world. Like I mentioned, I've been with AT&T for over 7 years and I have rarely had issues in the southeastern U.S.

Back on topic:

Android is going do to the Iphone what Windows did to IBM.

I'm not so sure. We were in a different time then, and MS products pre-installed and shipped with every PC was domination. But with smartphones, there are many models and I think the OSs they host will continue to be a hot topic.

But who's to say that Apple will not release a Windows version of its SDK? What happens if/when the iPhone is no longer restricted to AT&T? Is it possible that Apple is smart enough--even though they want to maintain their niche and not be the next MS--to break their bind with AT&T?