This isn’t surprising at all.  Do I think we should all freak out?  Not…yet.  It was only a matter of time before the freedom we’ve enjoyed on Android started to fade away as all of these carriers realized that "open” isn’t necessarily good for their bottom lines.  With data theft (tethering for free) more than likely climbing by the minute and bloatware contracts flooding handsets, it’s almost shocking that this didn’t happen sooner.  The cell phone business hasn’t always been the most consumer-friendly, so why should we expect it to be now?

If P3 is right, and we see a couple of developer devices each year that will be unlockable, we won’t be entirely S.O.L., but I’m just wondering how top of the line they’ll be.  The current time frame for the Nexus S to land on another carrier besides T-Mobile is maybe in the summer which would put that device at 7-8 months old.  Locked or unlocked, I don’t want a phone that’s almost at the end of its life cycle even if it is more root-friendly.  I’m just scared that carriers will offer up these "unlockable” devices, but make them no where near the level of new locked down phones in terms of specs.  Ugh.

I should point out that we have no idea what Verizon or any of these others carriers plan to do with the information they are collecting about rooted users, but you can bet that we’ll know before too long.  With 1-year upgrades disappearing, new 4G LTE networks and amazing high speeds taking over, and manufacturers like HTC seemingly giving into to carrier lock-down demands, it’s time to get real picky when it comes to your next phone purchase.