Saw this while surfing…

Strategy: Nokia jealous of Apple, wants cut of the action

What amazes me is that the Telcos have given their business away to the handset companies and they don’t seem to have realized.

If I understand what Apple has managed to do here it is probably the end of the mobile network operators. Apple gets the brand, Apple gets the client relationship (you need to activate the phone through iTunes), they get the options revenue (you buy music and applications through iTunes), they get a cut of the call revenue and the best of all (as far as they are concerned) they get the subsidy for the phone. What have the networks got out of this deal?

There is a chance that Apple could start giving phones away and living off the 30% of the call revenue. Where does that leave the network operators?