One of the things about going with an unlocked phone in the U.S. that often doesn't get discussed is that you can realistically own multiple phones. We miss out

One of the things about going with an unlocked phone in the U.S. that often doesn't get discussed is that you can realistically own multiple phones. We miss out on this experience because we are so tied to contracts and only using one phone with a sim card. The biggest regret I have as someone who has been on phone contracts for years is that it is very prohibitive to experiment with different phones. If we treated phones more like computers, we could have more than one phone at a time. When you're on a contract with a locked phone, it's really difficult to experiment with different phones in any meaningful way. That doesn't mean I would be buying new phones all the time. Perhaps I get used ones off of Ebay, and I probably only buy a new phone every two years or so. Phones are starting to hit an inflection point where they will run well beyond two years. If we can get better unlocked options in this country with data and voice plans that are priced better, geeks like us can experiment with different phones and OSes. I use OS X and Windows every week (and Chrome OS, but that depends on the week). I hardly ever use Android, Windows Phone or Blackberry OS. And I think that's a shame.