It’s easy to see that AT&T would have things easier if every phone used a single OS. But the power of being able to choose should outweigh most every other consideration in this case, and it will here too. The power of choice is one of the fundamentals of the industry, and free enterprise in general.

Speaking at the Symbian Partner Event in San Francisco, AT&T’s Roger Smith, head of new ideas and product supervision, stated that he wanted to “standardize on a single operating system for AT&T-branded smartphones as part of a dramatic consolidation of its mobile platforms over the next few years.”

Given the location of the speech, it’s not shocking that Symbian was listed as “a very credible and likely candidate” to be that OS, and for those questioning the iPhone, he stated that that Apple’s device is “simply a third-party device tapping into AT&T’s technologies”. If I were Apple, I wouldn’t appreciate this kind of comment, but Apple isn’t likely to care really.

Is AT&T going to shove away RIM and Microsoft to grab some open-source OS as their primary one for all their lines? It’s probably not going to happen, but the thought is interesting. Would having no choice, just one OS make the cell phone world a better one?