Worst of the Week: Shocking and unlocking

Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
So it looks like Apple is warning (read: threatening) its iPhone users with a statement about the horrors of unlocking the device. Key, terror-inducing phrases like “irreparable damage,” “permanently inoperable” and “voided warranty” are littered throughout the company’s missive on the topic. My question is: Should anyone really be surprised by this? It’s not like you could drop a supercharged 8.4-liter, V10 engine into a Ford Focus and expect the dealer to fix your transmission after it explodes.
Anyway, the whole dustup got started thanks to some enterprising tech geeks, who likely spent countless hours fiddling with the iPhone’s software until they figured out a way to untether it from AT&T Mobility’s clutches. Then, these geeks published their tricks on the Internet, where bunches of other tech geeks were overjoyed to try it to see if it worked or not.
The situation sort of reminds me of the rotten, rancid tomato I found in the back of the fridge once: I absolutely had to show the thing off to everyone, and everyone absolutely had to smell it, knowing full well that it stank spectacularly.
My point is that I don’t really see the problem with locking handsets. I mean, I understand the allure of an unlocked handset (Why should I be tied to one and only one carrier?) but I also understand the purpose behind locking (Why shouldn’t a carrier be able to protect its investment?).
See, a locked handset protects a carrier’s subsidy on that phone; without subsidies, I would have had to pay $300 or more for the phone I paid $50 for. And though I know that the full cost of that phone likely is built into my monthly cellphone bill, it’s still easier for me to digest that cost over 24 months rather than an afternoon.
Further, locking phones to service encourages carriers to invent some nifty offerings-the iPhone’s visual voicemail service is a great example. As far as I understand it, the iPhone’s visual voicemail won’t work unless the phone is running on AT&T’s network. Thus, a locked phone provides additional benefits to users.
Finally, a locked phone is less likely to catch a cold by traipsing all over the networks of other carriers. You should always wash your phone after using a strange network.
Anyway, I understand that unlocked phones create new opportunities for cellphone resellers and content providers, and I suppose that could stand as a pretty powerful argument. But for those of us who are primarily concerned with the cost of their phone and the cost of their service, locked phones seem like a reasonable deal.
That said, I’m terribly curious to see if that iPhone unlocking software works.
OK! Enough of that. Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–The Ultra Mobile Broadband specification (previously referred to as EV-DO Revision C) recently got published, and it supports peak data rates of up to 288 Mbps in a 20 megahertz slice of bandwidth, according to the CDMA Development Group and the Third Generation Partnership Project 2. Conversely, rival technology Long Term Evolution is set to support peak data rates of 100 Mbps within a 20 megahertz slice of spectrum, according to the Third Generation Partnership Project. Now, I admit that math is not my strong suit, but I suspect that 288 is a much larger number than 100. Does Verizon Wireless know about this?
–Seems there is a new mobile advertising company out there, ThePudding, offering a service that can scan your voice conversations and serve up ads based on what you’re talking about. It’s still unclear exactly how the ads would be delivered, however, whether through SMS, MMS or some kind of audio prompting system. (The company is still testing the offering, and has not made any official announcements.) My hope is that the ads are delivered via a screaming Vin Diesel. For example, a discussion about where to go for drinks after work would result in Mr. Diesel shrieking, “GATORADE! IS IT IN YOU?!?!”
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at mdano@crain.com.