....in the cell phone industry. <br><br>Apple is trying to put out an iTunes phone with Motorola, but it may never see the light of day because the major carriers don't want it.<br><br>If the DOJ wants to go after somebody, they should go after the cell phone companies. There is absolutely no reason you shouldn't be able to go buy any cell phone you want at the store and use it with any service. <br><br>

You're right you should be able to use any phone you wish with whatever carrier. I believe the U.S. is the only region this isn't the case.<br><br><br><br>

It's just ridiculous. This is like how it used to be 30 years ago when AT&T had the phone company monopoly. If you wanted a new phone, you had to call the phone company. <br><br><br><br>

When you look at the current Cell Phone industry model, it feels so dated. It's almost like one of those things you look back on and shake your head that it was ever this way:<br><br>"Remember when each cell phone company only carried specific brands of phones, and that they weren't interchangeable?"<br><br>"Yeah, yeah! And how you couldn't just go buy a phone at Walmart or Target and activate it with your current cell phone compnay?"<br><br>"Man, talk about antiquated. Glad things aren't in the dark ages anymore." <br><br>****************<br>[color:red]Fat people are harder to kidnap</font color=red>

The bigger networks keep swallowing up smaller ones, and eventually, there'll only be one left standing anyway. *burp* So you'll have all those different phones, and just one carrier. Translation: You'll ba able to use any phone with your carrier. <br><br>

Apple is trying to put out an iTunes phone with Motorola, but it may never see the light of day because the major carriers don't want it.<br><br>Apple is the one who walked away from the negotiations with Moto. Jobs saw the writing on the wall as moto was outlining their strategy to sell music to cell phone customers. My guess is Jobs decided moto is one of them and not sympathetic to Apple consumer needs.<br><br>I say fu*k the phone carriers and fu*k moto — I'll keep my iPod. I don't need no stinking ring tones either. The carriers probably had to jump through hoops using a less than workable hardware/software implementations just to be able to deliver a frickin' ring tone to your cell phone and charged a premium just pay the salaries of a few computer geeks they had on retainer. Computers and cells are like oil and water.<br><br>If I'm not mistaken we now have third parties who have jumped on the bandwagon and are now selling all manner of 3G sounds, images, screen-savers, that can be downloaded directly to your PC and you know the carriers have gotta' hate that.<br><br>The carriers are greedy bastids. How long have any of you been trying to obtain the hardware to connect your cell phone directly to your mac? Each time I upgraded my phone I had to buy yet another cable because of the proprietary ports built into the phones.<br><br>If these guys piss Jobs off bad enough, he's liable to offer a simplistic VOIP solution for Apple consumers.<br><br>

cell phones = spawn of the devil.<br><br>Truth is a 3 edged sword.

Cell phones are great. I absolute have to have one for work so that my clients can reach me whenever they need me. No need to sit by a phone all day!<br><br>

Well after reading those "numbers" about just the ringer tones alone - No wonder they don't want or even need anything to do with Apple. <-- thats a no brainer and good business sense on their decisions. They simply don't want a stick in the mud so to speak on how they gouge their customers.<br><br>Read the numbers again I can see their points = money.<br><br>What Apple needs to do is dump these land sharks. Build a phone thats all Apple that works with any phone provider and will down load music from any service.<br><br>

I don't get the whole ring tone thing. <br><br>With a cell phone, I want three things:<br><br>--good battery life<br><br>--good reception<br><br>--an address book<br><br>I could care less about cameras, ringtones, web surfing, music, etc. Although an Apple phone would be interesting. <br><br>