Shared by Jon
Money section:

If you're curious how an agency like the FCC says something like "total failure," take a look at yesterday's innocuously titled document, "Comment sought on video device innovation." Buried inside that document are these lines: "The Commission's CableCARD rules have resulted in limited success in developing a retail market for navigation devices. Certification for plug-and-play devices is costly and complex."

"Limited success" is a bureaucratic euphemism for abject failure, as the FCC made clear during its own November open meeting. During that event, as part of its discussion about the National Broadband Plan, it noted that set-top box innovation had stagnated. Agency engineers showed the following chart, pointing out that only 14 non-leased set-top boxes were on the market in the US.

Fourteen—and yet most Americans own a TV, and most subscribe to some form of pay-TV service. Compare this to mobile devices, where innovation has exploded despite (the now loosening) carrier restrictions; in 2008, 879 mobile devices were in existence. Why innovation in the one market but not the other?

The Genachowski-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems to delight in dropping bombsh...