I love competition. Actually, everyone does. Even if you don’t think you’re competitive, if I spend enough time with you, I’ll find that thing you’re passionate about and exploit it.
An area I’m extremely competitive and passionate about is Apple products and mobile computing. I enjoy Apple vs Microsoft arguments and Blackberry vs iPhone arguments and iPhone vs Pre arguments.
But when it comes to the iPhone, I want real competition, not what we have in the United States. The bullshit exclusivity walls need to come down so that everyone on every carrier can pick whatever phone they choose. I understand that when Apple started building the iPhone, they had to partner with just one carrier in order to have it see the light of day.
While there are genuine Palm Pre fans on the Sprint Network and geniune Blackberry Storm fans on Verizon, there’s also iPhone fans on those networks that are choosing Pre’s and Bold’s for no other reason than that’s the closest they can come to an iPhone without switching carriers.
I want to see all the contenders on equal ground. I think the iPhone stands a chance of beating them all – Palm Pre, Blackberry Bold, Nokia N97, Motorola CLIQ – if they were all offered on all the networks.
What I’m suggesting is we treat all the networks like Apple is treating AT&T – a dumb, fast, reliable pipeline (and AT&T can’t even manage to do that).
I’m happy to see other countries like Singapore and Canada have access to the iPhone on multiple carriers, I just wish we could have that happen in the States.
When people don’t have to compromise, let’s see who they think is the best.