xkcd's timing could not be better. Randal Munroe boils down the ??AA's intent perfectly -- we're all criminals. See http://xkcd.com/488/ and laugh (or cry).
As I recall, the expected reason for IPv4 address exhaustion is almost everything in your house on the net so you can control it, so your electric utility can selectively shut down big loads without resorting to rolling blackouts, so your refrigerator can order more ice cream, ... If my refrigerator, air conditioner, TV, water heater, home alarm all have externally accessible IP addresses, we'll need something like IPv6 eventually.
That time is obviously not quite here yet, but it is hard to get people to buy stuff that will e-mail trouble reports your phone then respond to commands from that phone when the network is not ready to support a bazillion more addresses.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I see 2 separate issues here. AT&T discounts the price of phones in return for a service contract of 1-2 years. It is like financing part of the price of the new phone. The ETF should pay off the loan, compensate them for the lost revenue that would have paid for the H/W discount. ETFs are often lump sums that feel proportionately larger and more unfair as the contract nears its end, but that is a topic for another discussion. There is nothing basically wrong with the concept of ETF (in spite of some greedy examples).
The second issue is the way Apple wants to lock iPhone users to AT&T, probably due to the service usage kick-back mentioned in other posts. They want their revenue stream, too. In the same way, AT&T and other wireless providers want to lock the hardware they sell to using their service. This is one of the real problems I see with wireless phone service. Wireless providers want to rake in money without having to compete for it so they create hidden debt to lock-in customers.
In some ways this is like the mail-in rebates we have become used to seeing in many retail situations. I would rather see a fair price for the phone which I am then free to connect to any compatible service. Don't try to trick me with an artificially low price. The service provider should also offer better rates for people who are not expecting them to finance part of the cost of the phone.
I should be able to do anything I want with hardware I purchase, but it's not mine until it is paid off (at the end of the service contract that financed it). Why won't Apple unbundle iPhones from specific service providers? Many people would be willing to pay for an open iPhone just because it's an Apple.
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Today's xkcd Comic
xkcd's timing could not be better. Randal Munroe boils down the ??AA's intent perfectly -- we're all criminals. See http://xkcd.com/488/ and laugh (or cry).
Address Exhaustion
As I recall, the expected reason for IPv4 address exhaustion is almost everything in your house on the net so you can control it, so your electric utility can selectively shut down big loads without resorting to rolling blackouts, so your refrigerator can order more ice cream, ... If my refrigerator, air conditioner, TV, water heater, home alarm all have externally accessible IP addresses, we'll need something like IPv6 eventually.
That time is obviously not quite here yet, but it is hard to get people to buy stuff that will e-mail trouble reports your phone then respond to commands from that phone when the network is not ready to support a bazillion more addresses.
Two Separate Issues
Maybe I'm missing something, but I see 2 separate issues here. AT&T discounts the price of phones in return for a service contract of 1-2 years. It is like financing part of the price of the new phone. The ETF should pay off the loan, compensate them for the lost revenue that would have paid for the H/W discount. ETFs are often lump sums that feel proportionately larger and more unfair as the contract nears its end, but that is a topic for another discussion. There is nothing basically wrong with the concept of ETF (in spite of some greedy examples).
The second issue is the way Apple wants to lock iPhone users to AT&T, probably due to the service usage kick-back mentioned in other posts. They want their revenue stream, too. In the same way, AT&T and other wireless providers want to lock the hardware they sell to using their service. This is one of the real problems I see with wireless phone service. Wireless providers want to rake in money without having to compete for it so they create hidden debt to lock-in customers.
In some ways this is like the mail-in rebates we have become used to seeing in many retail situations. I would rather see a fair price for the phone which I am then free to connect to any compatible service. Don't try to trick me with an artificially low price. The service provider should also offer better rates for people who are not expecting them to finance part of the cost of the phone.
I should be able to do anything I want with hardware I purchase, but it's not mine until it is paid off (at the end of the service contract that financed it). Why won't Apple unbundle iPhones from specific service providers? Many people would be willing to pay for an open iPhone just because it's an Apple.