The good doctor seems to think that the ATT-Apple hookup should be illegal, because it's bundling in restraint of trade. But if you look at it, I'm not convinced that it's really any different than any other phone ever. I mean, every phone made for a long time has been a computer, and most of them have been sold locked in to a carrier and without the ability to install software.

Look at it from the perspective of embedded computing. I mean, I don't think that anyone objects to GM saying your warranty is void if you try to fiddle with the computers in their car, or GM forcing you to use a certain brand of real time control software. The computer is incidental, and fiddling is a bad thing. Perhaps Apple and ATT have the same thing going here.

Of course releasing an SDK kind of makes that argument moot.

Labels: computers, politics