Ron Pinkas wrote: > What gives? How could you advocate freedom, open source, etc., when > you try to force your clients into 2 years conracts with an exclusive > provider?
HTC and T-Mobile are welcome to do what they want; it's a part of free-market economies. It is fairly common in the US for phones to be subsidized and, therefore, SIM-locked and tied to a two-year contract. Off the top of my head, I'm not aware of any major US wireless carrier that *doesn't* work this way. HTC is welcome to sell un-badged/unlocked HTC Dream phones, if their contract with T-Mobile allows it. I have no idea if it does or not -- the terms of HTC's and T-Mobile's contract are (presumably) private to their firms. Again, welcome to the free-market economy. I get the impression that HTC's typical contracts don't allow them to directly sell such devices in the US market, but that they can sell them elsewhere, allowing resellers to bring them stateside. Watch the sites of your favorite mobile device resellers, or watch eBay. Also, there may be markets that Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile enter that require unlocked phones. Not every country supports the US phone distribution model. So it may be that, where you are, you will be able to get one unlocked and without a contract from the start. Also also, I've heard that T-Mobile will unlock your G1 for you after 90 days, but I don't recall seeing a definitive statement from T-Mobile confirming that point. So, rolling back to your original point, if you have proof that HTC and T-Mobile wanted to buck tradition and sell unsubsidized/unlocked phones in the US market, and Google forced them at gunpoint to do otherwise, please post a link! > While I understand that more phones from more vendors may ultimately > become available, this does not change the fact that the only hardware > currently "available" is not at all availble in the true meaning of > the word. This is an issue for HTC, and secondarily T-Mobile. Google is more involved than, say, the Apache Foundation, but the whole *point* of Android is to create an open source mobile operating system that firms could use with no strings attached. No strings attached means just that -- and in the US market, requiring unsubsidized/unlocked phones would be considered a substantial string. -- Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy) http://commonsware.com Android Training on the Ranch! -- Mar 16-20, 2009 http://www.bignerdranch.com/schedule.shtml --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Beginners" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
