> Most phone users never see their sim card.

That's a very US-centric statement. In Europe, and other places where border crossings are a daily occurrence, switching SIM cards is a part of life if one wants to avoid huge roaming fees. There's no reason Americans couldn't learn to deal with the same sort of thing.

Moreover, in Europe and other places, contracts are not common and phones can be used with any carrier, so people buy their phones from electronics stores, just like a PC, and then buy a SIM card from a cellular company, then put the SIM card in themselves.

I don't think border crossings are really a daily occurrence for most in Europe. More common than in the US? Sure. But still not anything like a majority of users do this often, and I'm sure almost none of them are happy with having to do so.

Daily is obviously a bit of an overstatement, but Europeans are far more likely to leave their country on business and/or holiday than those of us in the US are. As a result, there is a general understanding that you can make your mobile use much less expensive by swapping sim cards. A knowledge that doesn't exist in the US (which I imagine mobile providers are happy about).

Just because something is required does not make it better. I doubt many Europeans would complain if they didn't have to switch SIM cards at every border.

I'm not saying it's better. I'm saying that it's less painful than many Americans believe, and that if installing the OS yourself with a microSD card became necessary in order to work around the patent system, then it could very well become a reality.

Further to this, it's not unusual to see a massive rack of SIM cards for different networks in practically every supermarket and paper shop you walk into.

This isn't uncommon for us.

I can attest to your last line with my wife- when I talk of the OS on her and my Android it is way over her head. The concept to non-technical users is unfortunately something to be taken care of ahead of time.