Consumers in no way benefit. Verizon had argued that the carriers wouldn't put the marketing behind devices if they weren't exclusives. Well, phone companies

Consumers in no way benefit. Verizon had argued that the carriers wouldn't put the marketing behind devices if they weren't exclusives. Well, phone companies would hawk their wares. It's monopolistic competition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolistic_competition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolistic_competition). They each want to be a little different so that they'll attract a subset of the population and be able to charge a little more. Without exclusive devices, each carrier has a lower ability to differentiate themselves from each other and less of a chance to charge consumers higher prices. The more differentiation, the less you have to compete on price.