Aaron Krowne

AT&T: The (Apple) Brand Destroyer

By way of comparison, those with experience with Verizon know how (despite a solid network) that company tends to destroy all the phones that come its way by severely crippling the software. This would likely be deadly for any particular phone, except for the fact that none seem to give Verizon exclusivity. Thus, Verizon has not been able to kill, say, BlackBerry.

AT&T: The (Apple) Brand Destroyer

A lot of the above commentors seem to miss the point that the very problem is that ONE carrier has been picked. It doesn't matter which one (though AT&T is notorious for a variety of reasons). The point is,why in the world should a PHONE DEVICE have only one carrier? What a racket. This is the antithesis of a quality outcome in technology, where consumers benefit most by eventual openness.
Unquestionably, as this article shows, both the carrier and the device manufacturer have an incentive to behave more badly than otherwise with a closed/cartelized arrangement.

Has everyone forgotten how Apple got destroyed in the 90s by the ultra-compatible PC architecture? They didn't gain back that ground until they became a non-computer gadget company and simply adopted a unix-based OS. Once again they are innovating first, but heading towards flaming out quickly as they try to stop progress towards a more open architecture.

I don't see how their model is going to hold up in this economy.