Phone companies will cannibalize the Mobile OS

You see it every day and you just don't realize it. That person using their fancy new smart phone hacked it/has a paid app that they downloaded/has at least 10 MP3s that they don't "own" on it. The phone company doesn't want you to have any of that and they WILL stop you.

No matter how many times technology changes for the better or how awesome it is for the world, no one is going to be happy... especially the guys who are looking to making money off of it. I am currently a perfect example of this.

I have an HTC Incredible. Verizon calls it the DROID Incredible by HTC. It's a great phone and I love it to death, but getting the latest version of the Android software has been quite a pain. The Motorola Droid managed to get it before Incredible owners, which is a huge letdown by itself. I, however, don't really care. The official update is out and circulating to phones, but it doesn't matter to me. Not that 2.2 isn't important or a great update, but I've already got it.

Yep, I have it before it even came out. I've had it in several different flavors. Right now I have it in a flavor that seems to work better and have less bugs than those with the OFFICIAL update. Go figure. I have a phone that is "rooted" (Jailbroken to anyone with an iPhag...err iPhone) and I've already had this update for quite some time. The official version doesn't seem to really offer much more. But it should.

Soon we will start seeing phone companies take the Mobile OS technology and consume it. Verizon might end up with Android while AT&T ends up with iOS and T-Mobile gets Windows Mobile. Fuck Sprint, they might as well go out of business for all I care, lying pieces of shit. This may not be how it all boils down, but it will go that direction soon enough.

Why? Because of money. If people can so easily hack, change or manipulate this stuff then someone, somewhere isn't getting their money. Jailbreaking your phone could result in an automatic brick if Apple catches you soon enough. Verizon and Sprint have been slowly narrowing your ability to root and modify your phone on their latest Android devices. In the next few years we will see the Mobile OS become a huge market and you can bet that the phone companies are going to cash in on it.

Until they do I plan on having plenty of fun with my uber powerful smartphone and it's open source OS. Hopefully by the time they do that we will all be on a network similar to what they have in Europe. Pick your phone, pick your carrier. We will just have an extra step with "Pick your OS".