Apple purposefully chose to operate in an adversarial relationship with the telcos. They got concessions on app revenue streams (before apps existed), stopped i

Apple purposefully chose to operate in an adversarial relationship with the telcos. They got concessions on app revenue streams (before apps existed), stopped iPhones from being peddled by fly by night phone resellers, and stressed out the phone companies networks. An out of the box iPhone contains no carrier-branded crap. Period. Apple is pushing the Apple user experience without the price premium. Everyone else is selling a commodity with minimal desirability. The Droids/BlackBerries/WebOS devices look and feel like knockoffs.