Up until now, the rational choice was to dole out as many IPv4 addresses as possible, in order to justify a larger allocation from ARIN. Now that the party's over, we should expect ISPs and hosting providers to become more stingy with their addresses: more NATs, more proxies, higher prices.
Any new providers that pop up between now and the date IPv4 becomes irrelevant will be at a competitive disadvantage.
Thus finishing the imprimatur[1]. It is an utter travesty that we haven't junked IPv4 yet. NAT removes the most powerful feature of the internet - that anybody can publish without the permission of a central authority - and I fear too many people in the software industry profit from the resulting centralization to resist things like carrier grade NAT.
> the date IPv4 becomes irrelevant
That date was 03-Feb-2011 at the latest[2].
> competitive disadvantage.
The problem is the people with larger IPv4 address blocks who se this competitive disadvantage as a good thing.
From the perspective of the ISP many customers are totally incapable of implementing NAT and waste IP addresses like they are dollar bills at the strip club.
Any new providers that pop up between now and the date IPv4 becomes irrelevant will be at a competitive disadvantage.