Does it drive you crazy when you look to upgrade your cell phone and the ‘other carrier’ has the cool phone?  I’ve been in cell hell for the past two months.  The thing is, I have to replace Sticks’ phone — I burned his upgrade on the Samsung Blackjack last summer and he’s limping along with a phone that hardly holds a charge (he’s had it for nearly 3 years) and isn’t compatible with the wireless Internet AT&T/Cingular offers. 

I’ve looked at the iPhone, but it won’t work with my account (business), so I’d have to open a new personal number.  Not acceptable.  There are a couple of other AT&T devices out there that are nicer than the Blackjack, but here’s the hitch:  Because I don’t have an available upgrade I’m stuck having to either pay the full, wildly inflated price for it or score one on EBay and hope it works on the AT&T network.  The one I bought for DG on EBay semi-works — I can’t get it to receive MMS messages because it’s not a fully-compatible ATT/Cingular phone. 

The reason the carriers get away with these outrageous prices is because they’ve made deals with the developers to enable/disable certain features of the phone to make it “unique” to the network, and that just pisses me off.

A wireless phone is a piece of hardware.  The heart of the phone is the SIM card, not the phone.  So when Motorola makes the RAZR2 and then tweaks the OS for Verizon or AT&T or whatever, the consumer is stuck with the fixed price and a lock-in on the contract for 12-24 months. Bonus Link

AT&T, I don’t want to marry you for another 2 years.  I just don’t.  Not that any other carrier is better — they’re all basically fixing their prices and tweaking their devices to do the same things.  And because they have a lock on the hardware, we’re stuck with falsely inflated prices.  Sorry, but you will never convince me that the Samsung Blackjack should cost more than a laptop.  But it does, under AT&T’s pricing structure.

So along comes Google, the champion of open source, free access and free apps.  Rumors are running rampant: Google is about to announce the development of its ‘gPhone’ — a cell phone that’s shipped with Google Apps on it.  Since I use GMail and maps on my phone now, having those native to the phone along with the ability to use YouTube (something I can’t do right now) would be very, very cool.  With all of the widgets they have under development plus the rumors of an open source social networking platform, they’re all set to break open the world of cell phones.

Why oh WHY are they negotiating deals with Verizon and T-Mobile? This is an OPPORTUNITY, Google. You can disrupt the entire cell phone industry by putting the phone in the hands of the consumer instead of the corporation.  Introduce your phone with its open operating system, SIMless.  We should be able to insert our SIM with the settings embedded and have the phone work.  Don’t negotiate DEALS, open the damn thing up to anyone!

Here’s how it should work:  Build the phone, set a reasonable price for it (not more than about $150, touch screen $250).  Have a slot for a microSD card for storage so you’re not charging the consumer for extra storage like the stupid iPhone.  Then put it on the market, either through mass market outlets like Target and Radio Shack, or through direct order.  You could even make two flavors to accommodate the people who are on 3G (ATT) versus whatever Verizon/T-Mobile are using.  Include bluetooth.  Then sell the hell out of it and FORCE these carriers to be competitive by not overpricing their phones and then locking customers into a contract. 

I don’t want a contract; I want a PHONE.  One that works.  One that charges, one that I can be confident that Sticks can safely use on his Bluetooth unit in the car as well as on the campus.

I’ll live with the advertising Google plans if I can get rid of the damnable lock-in contract.  So Google, don’t make deals with the devil.  Stand up and be independent.  If you can’t stand up to the telcos, no one can.

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Tags: Google, Verizon, ATT, Cingular, cell phones, gPhone, wireless, VRM