Free At Last?

In one of the most significant legal rulings in the tech industry this year, a Superior Court judge in California has ruled that the practice of charging customers a fee for breaking their cell phone contract early is illegal and violates state law.

Without the threat of levying early termination fees, the cellular carriers lose the power that's enabled them to lock customers into contracts for multiple years at a time. And while those contracts can be ong, they also let the carriers offer phones at subsidized prices. If subsidies vanish, what happens to hardware lock-in? Could an era of expensive, but unlocked, hardware be just around the corner? Some are saying it's highly probable.