The iPhone, revolutionary as it was, didn’t alter one underlying dynamic: Phone manufacturers—who wanted to make the most capable, feature-rich phones—were stil

The iPhone, revolutionary as it was, didn’t alter one underlying dynamic: Phone manufacturers—who wanted to make the most capable, feature-rich phones—were still at odds with the carriers that provide the pricey bandwidth to power those features. That had led to conflict between Apple and its carrier partners, especially AT&T. Apple wanted users to take full advantage of the iPhone’s capabilities, but carriers then had to spend billions to keep up with the demand on their overtaxed networks. Android finally rewrote that calculus. Because carriers get a cut of app sales and ad revenue, they stand to make money when subscribers surf the web or download applications. For once, the interests of software designers, manufacturers, carriers, and customers are all aligned. This is so ridiculously wrong - and anyone who had to do j2me development for applications for all those silver clamshell phones that we all had before the iPhone knows it. The carriers ALWAYS took a big cut of your application revenue. Wanted to sell a BREW app to Verizon customers? Verizon took a very healthy chunk of your little program's paltry purchase price. What was genuinely different (and refreshingly so) was the iPhone's software market - Apple told the phone companies to go to hell. Does anyone really remember just how bad all of this was before the iPhone?