Gotta agree with PSS here. Tell me, what was the holdup on tethering on the iPhone for the past few years? Was it AT&T stopping Apple from allowing it? Of course it was (AT&T now allows it, if you pay the $20/mo fee). Why did it take so long for Apple to approve a SlingPlayer for iPhone despite the fact that Sling has had one ready for years? Was it because AT&T was afraid of what it would do to their already over-burdened network?
To say that Apple somehow kept AT&T away from the device is nonsense. The article’s point seems to be that Android isn’t as open as it was made out to be. So what? Is the answer to go to a totally closed system created by Apple?
Big problem is the 3G pipe can only carry only so much data.
Witness the advent of iPad 3G: the highly touted unlimited data plan stopped real quick when they realized how much data users would move.
That's the problem. Apple controls iOS completely, and the iPhone hardware. There is a clear line there between Apple and the carrier. Things must be negotiated between the two. This is the new model that Apple created, breaking the carrier stranglehold, and the Android promised to follow.
But Android's openness turns out to be its Achilles heel. It gave complete control of the software back to the carriers, who are up to their old tricks again. For example, Verizon pushes the Amazon MP3 store, I can't delete that app from my Android phone if I want to stay stock and supported. Verizon gets a special section on the Market for me, and read all app descriptions carefully, because downloading and using many of them will automatically add $$$ to your bill. They're not back to the old ways yet, but they're heading in that direction, enabled by Android.