Mqurice, TRIG, All:
Taking a slight detour, but directly related in some significant ways: Thinking patterns have a way of becoming ossified, which is what I've observed happening on both sides of this divide. Earlier today in response to another question that arose concerning 'dumb pipe' syndrome, I stated the following, edited slightly for venue, after which I pointed to LindyBill's article concerning the rumor revolving around Apple's entry into the program content space:
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Poster: "They (the carriers) no longer control the applications--they just don't. They need to optimize the business with a mind of being a much more intelligent service distributor, and they can start to do that now."
FAC: "Much more intelligent?" But how? Maybe the answer to achieving such intelligence actually points to remaining dumb. By this I mean perhaps they can remain a dumb pipe and still benefit from selling capacity to third parties. Like Apple, for instance, and I'm sure a boatload of others, who'll in turn do their bidding for them in the market place. It's a potential that has existed for aeons -- i.e., co-marketing and sales of content and services, while preserving the separation between content and conduit, thus maintaining neutrality, even in the wireline broadband space, except that the incumbents historically have eschewed notions surrounding the sharing of revenues. Until the iPhone. Maybe an iTune approach to displacing ordinary cable tv is what it will take to change the incumbents' minds: #msg-26069849
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