I was on the phone with a Verizon Wireless press contact, talking about the company’s decision to restrict the Bluetooth implementation of its Motorola V710 phone. Up front I made it clear that I wasn’t pleased with that choice, but I thought that it was probably fair to let her explain the reasoning.

Verizon Wireless had limited the full ability of the phone’s Bluetooth stack, forcing you to use its network to perform some basic functions that would otherwise be free, like moving camera phone images from a phone to a Bluetooth-enabled laptop or printer.

I was pretty sure I knew why. Verizon had openly stated before that the decision stemmed from its desire to generate revenue from customers who would otherwise share pictures and all sorts of other data with Bluetooth for free. I had hoped to uncover a rationale behind the decision that wasn’t based on money, though—a security hole, or perhaps an unknown by-product of the V710’s rush to market by Motorola.

No such luck. The decision was made to limit the functionality of the phone solely to generate revenue for Verizon Wireless—and the spokesperson freely admitted it. I was no less surprised by the executive’s candor over the phone than I had been when I first read the company’s positions online.

“So it’s just a small group of people—a vocal minority—who are really affected by these restrictions?” I asked.

“Right, a vocal minority.” She seemed relieved that I finally understood Verizon Wireless’ side of the story. For a second, I started to come around the carrier’s way of thinking. Most of its customers didn’t even know what they were missing, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Thousands of people are going to shell out the $299 or so that it costs to get the Motorola v710 from Verizon. And the executive was right: most of the people who buy the flip phone will probably pick it up because it does one or two things that their previous phone did not—play MP3s, for instance, or take 1.2-megapixel pictures. Most of those people will likely be satisfied with its capabilities, because they aren’t the sorts of nerds that delve into every deep menu option and locked configuration setting to see what their gadgets can do.

But is it fair to those less nerdly to pay for something that’s been intentionally crippled?

Portable Pundit Continues: Cutting Corners, Burning Customers >>