Quite frankly, the grip network operators have over American phone hardware is the fault of Americans themselves. Americans who are worried about network operators crippling hardware should put their money where their mouth is instead of playing the helpless victim.

Innovation has been stifled in America more than elsewhere because Americans have this weird idea that phones MUST be bought from network operators, that phones MUST be "activated". Neither of those things is even remotely true. Americans have got into the habit of always going to their network operator to buy a phone, and they are willing to buy phones that cannot be moved to other networks. Aren't there alarm bells ringing at that point? Would you buy a computer that only works with one ISP?

If you don't want to have any network operator involvement, don't buy your phones from network operators. You don't buy PCs from ISPs, you don't buy cars from fuel stations, so why the heck are you buying phones from network operators?

I have never ever bought anything from a network operator. All of my phones have been purchased from electrical retailers, just like computers or televisions or cameras. No activation, no network-locking, just pure hardware which can work on any network (or even without a network if I choose to use it entirely through wi-fi).

Nokia offers practically all its devices in unlocked form in every region, including North America, so it's up to the customer to buy unlocked devices if they want to avoid getting operator-crippled hardware.

Vote with your wallet, it's the only way to stop network operators crippling hardware.

To those who say unlocked phones are expensive: they're not. If you buy a phone from a network operator you're buying it in installments on credit, which is financially the same thing as buying an unlocked phone on a credit card. Quite often the unlocked phone turns out cheaper than the locked one once you add up all the payments, especially as unlocked phones are a lot easier to sell on ebay etc when you upgrade to a new model.