> The more the iPhone succeeds, the less leverage the carriers have, Mr. Kuittinen explained. All they have is bandwidth.<p>I look forward to the day when mobile carriers are nothing but dumb pipes. Maybe then they'll focus on providing the most bandwidth and best coverage, instead of crap apps that no one cares about.
Things will go a lot smoother once the carriers realize that all they are IS bandwidth. Unlike Cable, they didn't offer valuable content to begin with, and don't have the same leverage to delay the inevitable. Charge users an acceptable price for bandwidth based on infrastructure costs, and call it a day. It is a fantasy of theirs that they can generate revenue in other ways at this point. They don't know how, otherwise they would make their own phones and app markets. It seems corporate executives with dying business models often resort to delusional flailing strategies. I'm just not sure if they believe this is the correct route, or have to appear to be doing 'something' for the investor's sake.
Simply: because the carriers want to be able to play phone manufacturers against each other like the good old days. Android alone hasn't given them as much ammo against Apple as they'd like and Android itself may be facing consolidation.<p>There's a real chance that consumer acceptance of the incredible range of Android phones is predicated on their belief that the Android brand makes those phones largely comparable, if not compatible.<p>So if manufacturers go a more Amazon-ish route with Android in retaliation for Google's buying Motorola, it's entirely possible that consumers may not be willing to follow the smaller outfits. And that would mean a further concentration of sales under the handful of manufacturers that do have some individual pull with consumers (say, HTC and Samsung). Which would only exacerbate the carriers' problem of not-enough-phone-manufacturers-at-each-others-throats.
How much technological leadership do mobile carriers have to throw around, really? They're not exactly writing must-have apps or creating meaningful services. Their salespeople are Best Buy-style hucksters at best. The bottom line is they've fought the iPhone tooth and nail and it's still dominating U.S. sales.
Dear VZW and AT&T. Figure out a way to make your money providing a fast pipe at a decent price and we'll love you for it. Keep up the "Adversarial Value Extraction" (data caps, usurious text message pricing) and we'll abandon you like Blockbuster Video when a viable alternative arises.<p>Prediction: Google and Apple spin off a new, jointly owned company that enters the wireless market by buying sprint and /or t-mobile, and they create the wireless internet we need, not the one we deserve.
tldr version:<p>"The carriers are tired of Apple calling all the shots[...]"<p>IMO, with Apple's momentum right now it will take A LOT to eat into their market, maybe that's why they are betting on Microsoft.