TXLF: Defining and predicting the mobile "ecosystem"

I don't think the audience member said people couldn't own their phones *in* 1984; he said it was the situation _before the break-up_. I added the 1984 to the sentence because I originally intended to link to the Wikipedia article on the case, but somehow forgot to add it. In any case, the point is still valid regardless of the exact date that the practice in question ended.

As to giraffedata's point on property ownership, I do definitely think the situation *is* analogous: smartphones are given away "for free" only when on contract, and the contract/TOS dictate what the user can and cannot do to the hardware.

Nate