@R-R: While I agree that Apple discriminates against programs that competes with their offerings (this wall is crumbling down too when they let Spotify (spotify.com) sells their app in the AppStore), I think the ultimate 'guardian' against VOIP apps are the telco carriers. Apple would be the beneficiary if full-fledged VOIP apps are available on their platform.

The new phone every 14 months stat made me think about my phone usage.

In 8 years, I've gone through 8 phones - though some have lasted 3-4 years & for a while I had a personal and business phone at the same time. I only choose to upgrade once (my personal phone) & the rest (the business phones) were either replaced because they broke (warranty or non-warranty), I changed companies or I was "blessed" with a Blackberry.

i know it's not. you should hear me cough! on the subject at hand - i remember 15 years ago when landline calls to or from europe were 35 cents a minute. they're now down to 1-2 cents. (if you take inflation into account that drop is much greater than it seems.) i think that in a few years the same will happen with cellphone call minutes and they'll try to boost revenue with other services.

They'll try to boost revenue with other services? My gawds, have you seen the highway robbery that's taking place for text messages, sms and data!? I think they've already found their alternative revenue stream. Personally, I'd love to see every single company go to a $15-$25 unlimited talk/voice plan, and a $40-$50 unlimited everything plan (data, text, sms, etc). No limits of minutes, data, etc. The only limits I can see needing to be imposed would be throttling on super heavy internet users (If you're using more than 250gb a month on 3g/4g, you definitely need to be throttled to be fair to the other users). Otherwise, I can't see any reason why they should continue the current pricing plan. They've got the penetration, and the infrastructure. The next step should be to try and get the most customers with the best network and plans. And yet ever single cellular company is out to totally screw over everyone they can in the most creative and cruel ways possible. It drives me nuts.

Buying lottery tickets is less of a rip-off than the thievery of SMS/text charges. What a cash cow!!!

We'd all like to see that. Not gonna happen.

Because they can. See above about SMS/text charges...

Don't ya just love the smell of capitalism in the morning?

All that said, looks clear to me that as was said earlier, eventually all our communications will converge into IP 'net services. Everything, phone, data, TV. It will be a long time, but it will happen. And mostly wireless 'cause wireless is much cheaper to build out than fiber-optic cable to individual homes. Look at all the people who now have cellphones but never had access to land lines. Plus, it's well, wireless with all the mobility advantages that includes. Cable companies may have it tough, we'll see what they can do to compete.

The struggle now and for the foreseeable future is for control of wireless communications bandwidth and the main fiber trunk lines that connect it all together. The prices we'll pay later will be determined by the winners. Those winners will have heavy investments to pay off and stockowners to satisfy.

Some prices may come down, like for instance voice minutes have from competition and commodization. But other services (like SMS) will still be overpriced to make up the difference. IOW, I don't expect my total communications bill (TV + phone + data services, etc.) to get a major reduction for a long long time.