Phoneboy has a great post on how and why handsets make it to the US market, with special perspective on those from Nokia. It kind of provides an answer to questions I get from time to time from visitors to this blog. Mainly, they’re frustrated when they hear about new mobile VOIP services, especially “free” or “beta” ones that they can’t experience because a) it’s not clear which handsets the services run on b) it’s not clear if the handsets are even available, and c) who the heck knows if the network even supports them. Judging from what Phoneboy says, it’s clear that US carriers probably don’t support (or at least officially authorize) anything bleeding edge.

Such are the trials and tribulations of early adoption. Just hurry up already.