and there was me thinking what made handsets bulky was gimmicky large touch screens, keyboards, batteries, and over powered processors, but no its the tiny bit of plastic that you slide in...

My old 'just a phone' handset is still half the size of the current handsets on the market, takes less time to boot, runs for days without a charge, doesn't have weird reception issues, and only cost $10.

Can't see this happening any time soon, even with a company with as much muscle as Apple.

Apple are really turning into the next evil corporate giant, its interesting that they have chosen to go down the path which they once criticised. History repeating itself.

I think your probably right with this example, especially as Apple have started to sell unlocked iPhones. However, Apple do like to lock you into things generally.