Why are cell phones marketed in such an asinine way?

My TracPhone turned out to be a big waste of money.

The carriers are the largest buyers at the wholesale level. The manufacturers would much rather build phones to custom specs for a carrier that is willing to buy 2 million of them than build generic phones to sell 10 of them to the local mom & pop store. As a result the carriers get to set the specs for the phones.

All of the carrier's networks aren't compatible with each other either. Cingular/AT&T uses different protocols than Sprint/Nextel does. To build phones that would work with all of the carriers they'd have to build the core of 4 or 5 phones into one unit - something everyone would pay for even though they'd never use the added compatibility.

Yep, that's what I found out tonight while I was out shoppin' for a new phone. I guess t-mobile and cingular use GSM technology, whatever that is, so I could get one of the cingular phones if I want.

Now my problem is that if I want to buy a new phone but not sign a contract, I have to pay somewhere between 4 and 8 times the price for the goddammed thing. It's all about hooking you into a long-term contract with these scumsucking pigs. It sickens me, but I might end up having to do what I never wanted to do, and sign up for a contract. Sons o' bitches!

Hey, Miller, what's a Tracphone?

I know, there are some carriers that are known for having good phones and others that continously cripple cool features on phones. Verizon is notorious for crippling phones imo.