actually Ric, if you have a look at what has been happening of late, operators are getting a lot more savvy.

China Mobile controls it's Android based app store, whilst Vodafone has already launched it's 360 platform.

Regarding device support, this is more about agreeing on development standards that allow developers to access a common platform to deploy applications. This will fly, as the operators are sick & tired of handset manufacturers owning tehir customers by default.

This is one of the reasons why Symbian & Android being open platforms is a huge threat to Apple & it's peers.

Have a Google for Club Nokia, which was an attempt to own the customer by Nokia back in 2001/2002 ... I was involved in a particular part of the project from a network perspective, lots of cash flung at it & then it was blown out of the water by Vodafone.

Similarly, WiFi enable Blackberry was very late to the UK market ... why, Voda had the exclusice & told RIM that they did not want their 3G revenues cannabalised.

Operators will fight tooth & nail against becoming "dumb pipes" & they want to own the customer, the content & the applications .....

game on