Two very different publications – the Wall Street Journal and RCN News a respected trade publication in wireless – just this week suggest that the carrier’s walled gardens are starting to crumble in favor of open wireless networks. Driving this change is consumers who are fed up with seeing their choice of phones and mobile applications and content restricted by the carriers. Consumers want freedom—the same kind of freedom they are accustomed to on the desktop web. The freedom to purchase the mobile phone they see fit, run it on any compatible network, and download the mobile applications and other content that fits their taste and needs. What they don’t want is any company or companies serving as a “big brother” or intermediary in the process. Woe be it to any company – even a company as beloved as Apple – that tries to dictate choice to the consumer. Consumers are fed up and won’t take it anymore.
Relevant Links
iPhone bedlam dissected – RCR News October 22, 2007
Free My Phone – Walter Mossberg, WSJ, All Things Digital, October 21, 2007
