Smartphone Liberation Front

Here’s a fun Popular Science piece by Cory Doctorow outlining how smartphones free us from our carriers’ shackles.

I’ve been writing about smartphones for a long time now. I’ve used them. I’ve dissected them. I’ve even helped others find the kind of empowering software Doctorow discusses. And yet I still had a grin reading his dead-on analysis of the status quo and how smart phones, in the hands of smart consumers, are shaking things up.

As TheFeature recently noted, smart phone sales continue their impressive rise. Worldwide Q4 2004 sales more than doubled those of Q4 2003. TheFeature notes:

Researchers Canalys say manufacturers shipped 17.5 million smartphones in 2004, compared to 8.2 million a year earlier, with fourth-quarter shipments for smartphones and featurephones up 101% from the fourth quarter of 2003.

Vive la revolution! Aux armes, citoyens!