There's been a disturbing trend in business over the past 15-20 years where companies no longer want to provide good service at fair prices, but instead try to hype of the value of what little they do provide to extract obscene prices, now it's getting worse as products are being engineered by monopolistic companies to force consumers into having to pay for these these services instead of using cheaper services. The only way to stop this is for a consumer revolt. No matter how nice these products are, WE NEED TO JUST STOP BUYING THEM UNTIL THEY GIVE US OPEN PRODUCTS THAT LEAVE US FREE TO CHOOSE HOW *WE* WANT TO USE THEM! The telecom and media companies are the greediest of the greedy. How I use my data connection should be of no concern to telecom companies, and crippling that connection is only going to push me away. I wouldn't mind having an IPhone, but refuse to buy something where I'm forced to use a single carrier (especially a carrier that doesn't have a good signal where I live). Instead I have an ITouch but find out I can't tether it via Bluetooth to my existing phone for data access. This too is obviously a feature that was intentionally left out to fuel the greed of these corporations, namely AT&T who gains from their IPhone exclusivity at the expense of non-customers as well as customers.
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The new age of greed just keeps getting greedier
There's been a disturbing trend in business over the past 15-20 years where companies no longer want to provide good service at fair prices, but instead try to hype of the value of what little they do provide to extract obscene prices, now it's getting worse as products are being engineered by monopolistic companies to force consumers into having to pay for these these services instead of using cheaper services. The only way to stop this is for a consumer revolt. No matter how nice these products are, WE NEED TO JUST STOP BUYING THEM UNTIL THEY GIVE US OPEN PRODUCTS THAT LEAVE US FREE TO CHOOSE HOW *WE* WANT TO USE THEM! The telecom and media companies are the greediest of the greedy. How I use my data connection should be of no concern to telecom companies, and crippling that connection is only going to push me away. I wouldn't mind having an IPhone, but refuse to buy something where I'm forced to use a single carrier (especially a carrier that doesn't have a good signal where I live). Instead I have an ITouch but find out I can't tether it via Bluetooth to my existing phone for data access. This too is obviously a feature that was intentionally left out to fuel the greed of these corporations, namely AT&T who gains from their IPhone exclusivity at the expense of non-customers as well as customers.