Of course, if you go for the unlocked version your carrier options are still a) T-Mobile or b) AT&T (but only at slower 2G data speeds -- quick, cue up ). Those are the only two U.S. carriers that support GSM, the radio built into the Nexus One. Can you imagine any sane person skipping that T-Mobile discount just so they can go for a deal with slow and unsteady AT&T? Me neither. So what you get for your extra $350 is still a little fuzzy at this point.

The question is what happens next. Google says it will serve up a CDMA-based phone that will work on Verizon's network this spring. Nice, but again it's an unlocked phone that's still kinda-sorta locked to one network (unless you only plan to use it as a Wi-Fi device).

What Google is driving at, of course, is a world where cell phones (and really, that name is now wholly outdated) are sold the way personal computers have always been sold: unencumbered by a commitment to a single provider. In other words, no more lock-in -- just pick your phone, choose your carrier, and select your plan, in that order. Theoretically at least, carriers would then have to actually compete for your dollars, thus giving them a greater incentive to provide higher-quality service than they do now.

Sounds great. If there was ever an industry ripe for , the notoriously unpopular yet massively profitable wireless telecom industry is it. And it would require somebody with Google's cash and cojones to pull it off.

That's why everyone got so lathered up when , in the hopes it would compete directly with the wireless companies. Google didn't win, though -- Verizon did. And I'm willing to bet in the hopes everyone will forget who owns it.