> Google’s plan to cut out the middle-man from the sales plan (that is, the mobile operators) sucks (unless you’re talking about Apple). Except Apple hasn't cu

> Google’s plan to cut out the middle-man from the sales plan (that is, the mobile operators) sucks (unless you’re talking about Apple). Except Apple hasn't cut out the middle-man. In fact, the notion that carriers are middle-men is silly. If anything, Apple is the middle-man getting consumers locked into AT&T's poorly priced and overpriced data plans. The hardware is incidental, which is why Google 'failed.' The carriers refuse to offer data service, only phones with bundled service.