[Sgabert]

Bunch of Republicans in here. I think 6 month exclusivity is plenty. Actually, it would be best if the US had a mobile phone system like much of Asia, where phones are sold mostly without contract at a higher price then the customer chooses the carrier. This would foster more market growth because the carrier with the best network would get more business, instead of getting business based on the phone selection. I understand this would not work quite as well in the US because of the CDMA and GSM split, but by carriers having only certain phones I can imagine that manufactures are being hit because they have a smaller consumer base (being that most people probably wouldn't switch carriers). The providers also are being hurt because other companies come out with phones they are not able to offer because of exclusivity agreements, so they try to sign more agreements and the other companies try to sign more agreements and it turns into this big cuthroat spiral because customers are not coming to providers for service, they are coming to them for the phones they offer. Wutev, just my $.02