Michael Geist had an interesting article in yesterday’s Star called Unlocking the Mysteries of Locked Cellphones.
Our family has a couple unlocked phones that we use when we travel.
I agree with Michael that the handset belongs to the user, regardless of any subsidy associated with a multi-year contract. The contract obligates me to stay with the carrier or pay specified penalties. I wrote last February about a couple relevant rulings from the US Copyright Office on cell-phone embedded software.
Where I disagree with Michael is on the question of how much demand there is for unlocked phones. First off, the concept is meaningless for number portability in Canada – only one carrier (Rogers) currently supports GSM technology. Only a hard-core geek would even think of flipping between CDMA service providers with a single handset.
Next is the issue of how frequently customers want to upgrade their handsets anyway – seeking more mega-pixels on the camera; newer smart-features; stereo bluetooth headphones; GPS mapping. My unlocked phones, at 2 and 4 years old are museum pieces as far as my kids are concerned. When carriers are offering cheap new phones for switching, are there really people strongly attached to their old handsets?
The call-out box in the Star version of his article says:
While many consumers may like the opportunity to purchase a phone for a fraction of the full retail price, others would presumably prefer the freedom of an “unlocked” cellphone that would allow them to easily switch between carriers.
I suspect the others who would prefer the freedom are a small minority, often making this debate interesting but useless for the general public. My evidence? As I have written before, unlocked phones are widely available from various retailers, yet most people choose to go to official carrier stores and agents for the standard offering.
Why? For the same reason that most VCRs flashed 12:00 for years. Most people like things simple. Especially for their high tech toys.
The call out box also claims:
The freedom provided by unlocked cellphones is particularly useful for people who travel, since they can avoid roaming fees by converting their phone into a local phone in most countries by simply inserting a local SIM card. This approach is standard in Europe and Asia, where consumers would not tolerate a market comprised solely of locked cellphones.
Yes, the freedom is precisely why I have my unlocked phones. But, don’t get the idea that North America is a market “comprised solely of locked cell phones.” It is a $25-$35 exercise at many dealers to get your phone unlocked. Or you can readily buy an unlocked phone at many locations. And don’t get the impression that overseas markets are predominantly unlocked.
In my travels last week in a market enjoying well over 100% mobile penetration, most phones were locked to one carrier unless people had paid to have the phone unlocked. Very few of the people I met had bothered to do so.
A real challenge for us in the technology industry is to keep in mind that most of the general public aren’t like the folks in our engineering departments, or the folks who read my blog.
Thankfully!