Since the beginning of cell phone industry, cell phone service providers were the distributors of cell phone plans and then they dictated to cell phone makers which phones would be used and even what features they would have.
The cell phone manufacturers are trying to change the dynamic encouraging you to choose among the more expensive models and then pick the providers compatible with that phone. Make no mistake, the battle here is about channel and who controls a bigger piece of the pie. Market leader Cingular’s is noticeably absent among the choices of providers. My view is that they view stores like this as channels that are a threat to their control.
Not sure that anyone truly needs the $800 featured cell phone though. It’ll be interesting to see how this stuff develops.