I sincerely hope T-Mobile (our only possible GSM savior?) will see the light and use this to gain marketshare, but AT&T won't ever give up trying to control everything.

It's easy to see WHY Verizon uses their UI on every phone – it lets them push whatever phone they want you to buy (read: whatever phone they have the most stock on or best margins on) and why not, they're all the same really. Atleast on these phones (and really they all run the same OS, Qualcomm's BREW, mostly 3.1 w/ UIOne so they practically ARE the same phone) you can replace the entire UI with a new UIOne module (if you know how…)

And they starts to increase their profits in service sells, not in phone sells.

Maybe this is a start….

And they starts to increase their profits in service sells, not in phone sells.

Maybe this is a start….

The problem isn’t just present in the US. I’m sure you’re all aware of the Truphone thing with one of the European carriers disabling the MOIP functions of the N95.

@Jeff I wasn’t questioning the reason, I am presenting that this severely inhibits innovation. If all the phones function the same, regardless of manufacturer, then there’s no reason to innovate from a manufacturer’s standpoint, because a new feature will have to be supported by the UI, which is used by everyone.

And you still do not get your landline phone from AT&T. It is branded, but you don’t get it from the AT&T store. Like you said, it’s made by V-Tech. The big thing is that you have the option of buying whatever brand phone that you want, without a hassle in using it. Mobiles should be the same way.

The carriers will give you this B.S. like they need to test them. I’ve “tested” unbranded N80, E62, N73, and N95 on Cingular’s network, and they all worked without a hitch. SMS, Voice, MMS, Internet, all I had to do was pop my SIM card in there.

The problem isn’t just present in the US. I’m sure you’re all aware of the Truphone thing with one of the European carriers disabling the MOIP functions of the N95.

@Jeff I wasn’t questioning the reason, I am presenting that this severely inhibits innovation. If all the phones function the same, regardless of manufacturer, then there’s no reason to innovate from a manufacturer’s standpoint, because a new feature will have to be supported by the UI, which is used by everyone.

And you still do not get your landline phone from AT&T. It is branded, but you don’t get it from the AT&T store. Like you said, it’s made by V-Tech. The big thing is that you have the option of buying whatever brand phone that you want, without a hassle in using it. Mobiles should be the same way.

The carriers will give you this B.S. like they need to test them. I’ve “tested” unbranded N80, E62, N73, and N95 on Cingular’s network, and they all worked without a hitch. SMS, Voice, MMS, Internet, all I had to do was pop my SIM card in there.