As soon as you read the first paragraph, you know it’s going to be good:
You want to buy a car, so what do you do?Would you do the following?
Go to the nearest fuel station and agree to buy all your fuel from them for two years. Also agree to pay a hefty monthly fee to cover the cost of the fuel and car. You pay for fuel every month even if you don’t use any, plus extra charges if you use more than the agreement states. In return, the fuel station supplies you with any car from their very limited range, all of which have been altered to reject fuel from any other supplier.
I wrote something very similar a few months ago:
When you go car shopping do you go to your local gas station? When you want to buy a television do you call DirecTV? Do you buy light bulbs from your local electric company?
Then why are you buying a cell phone from a carrier?
She breaks down her argument in to 8 myths many people have about locked devices. You can feel her anger! I definitely share the same emotions on the subject:
- You have to buy a phone from a network operator, it won’t work otherwise
- Phones are too expensive to buy at retail, you have to buy it with an operator’s subsidy
- Phones from network operators are cheap or free
- The operators optimise the phone to work best on the network
- You can unlock the phone if you really want to, so locking really makes no difference
- The phone network operators give people on contracts great package deals which they couldn’t get otherwise
- Phones need phone network operators, that’s why they have unusual pricing arrangements
- Operators who receive a steady income from contracts and locked phones are able to provide better services
A very compelling read that I suggest anyone, especially Americans, read.