Short Nerd Chief

I’ve complained before about AT&T’s idiotic crippled implementation of Java, which prevents customers from installing and using any application that needs to access the Internet.  According to Gearlog, T-Mobile is no better:

The V8 is a 500 Mhz, Linux-running powerhouse with two gorgeous screens. I know application developers who would love to write software for it. But as with all of their feature phones, T-Mobile forbids any third party Java applications from being installed on the device. They’re basically trying to sell it as an overpriced voice phone, which is like buying a Voodoo PC to run Microsoft Word, or getting a car with a V12 to drive to the store. It makes no sense. (I gave it an Editor’s Choice anyway, for the voice quality. Go figure.)

T-Mobile’s idiotic, incomprehensible and self-defeating policy only gets stupider with time. I get it: they can’t build a 3G network, so they’re going to pretend data services don’t exist. But the lack of 3G hasn’t stopped the iPhone from taking over the multimedia universe, and T-Mobile has a far better position in Wi-Fi than AT&T does. If T-Mobile stopped arbitrarily barring third party applications from feature phones it wouldn’t make them a data leader, but heck, it’d be a start.

These carriers are still operating with the mindset of a monopolist, in which the customer is beholden to the provider for all services, and any third-party competitors should be blocked.  AT&T and T-Mobile keep their customers from installing Opera Mini, and do everything possible to boost their own for-pay services, such as TeleNav. Comcast’s new TiVo DVR strips out anything that could conceivably take revenue from Comcast, such as Amazon Unbox downloads. It makes perfect economic sense, but it’s terrible for the customer.  They don’t want to hear it, but these companies are infrastructure companies that should supply the capability for customers to use any product or service they choose.  They should be dumb pipes. Instead they’re just dumb.