Yeah, it would be terrible to have a system similar to that of Europe:

Free high-end phones
The ability to buy unlocked
Minimal, less costly contract periods
The newest phones immediately available

The real problem is that mobile device makers can only make money in the US when they partner with or provide exclusivity for a mobile carrier. This sucks because they inevitably have to make it proprietary (branding,apps, MyFav, whatever) for said carrier which delays the phones launch in every case. And since nearly every carrier uses different 3G bands, the result is you either are lucky enough to get the phone on your carrier or switch carriers...and forget about getting it unlocked (with 3G anyway) because that would undermine the contract signed by the device maker with the carrier. Can I just get the phone that I want? Is that asking too much?

Ok, I'm done...

Only took like 6 months...Yay! I wounder what the European readers think when they see stuff like this? Probably "congrats on getting a phone we've had since January. Cheers!"

...but seriously...I hope this trend of manufacturers having to temper their US release dates due to "carrier exclusivity" and/or "custom user interfaces" comes to and end one day.

My laptop monitor just died after only 2 years. This would be great!

No other carriers have piped up? Could've sworn I heard it passed FCC with AT&T bands...

What's wrong with innovation? Some people don't like having the same things as a million other people.

Thank you...I thought it was just me

Licensing is one thing, but this is just a bad marketing move. Google should consider making an exception here. I am by no means an Apple user but I have to admit, this is where Apple gets it's loyal followers. They allow their 3.0 software to trickle down to the older devices where as Google seems to be fighting it. This will probably put a bad taste in the mouth of current Android users...

In any event, this will most definitely be my next phone!

Once again Apple innovates while others stand still!!! First they INVENT 3G and now they're the first to add copy and paste and....oh whoops

Let's look at this list of features that other phones have had "for years":

1. MMS
2. Video Recording (I remember having this in late 2004)
3. Removable / Spare battery

The point is, there is no perfect device / OS. Get off it already. When the iPhone debuted, in addition to that list, it had no 3G and no GPS but guess, what, they added it a year later. Whose to say Win Mo 7 won't have a great product ready? Of course this is an interim until 7 is released. As dissapointing as the wait is, I'm willing to hold my judgment until I see the real deal.

I could have almost taken this half seriously and even agrteed with some of the points except I couldn't stomach the brute force hair-splitting while I tried to choke it down.

What about the Omnia and Touch HD (yeah, it's only for Europe but still...)?