As I expected, a class action has been filed.

The iPhone isn’t the first carrier-locked device — I was a longtime Sidekick user which us why I’m with T-Mobile now — but the iPhone is significantly higher profile and Danger wasn’t bricking hacked sidekicks. As a side note, I had more than one unhacked Sidekick bricked via software update, a big reason why I don’t use those anymore.

In fact, there are more parallels here now that I think of it. The Sidekick (aka Hiptop) was another one-of-a-kind device that was developed and supported by a third party. Whenever I talked to tech support at T-Mobile about the phone, they were generally clueless — I had to talk to Danger through their forums at hiptop.com to get any useful help, too.

The difference here is that Danger doesn’t sell hiptops. They contracted with T-Mobile, who do the sole distribution. Apple sells a product here that they’ve arbitrarily decided must be used on AT&T.

I’m happy to see this class action emerge. I expect I’ll be joining it.