The mobile web (for everyone except the regulators)
I’m in transit today, so just a brief note here - iPhone users love Google, which is just a symptom of a larger story. WIRED reports that the iPhone is putting a lot of pressure on the traditional business model of the wireless carriers.
Content isn’t king online (despite the best efforts of the studios to glom together with network providers to make it so). And control isn’t king either. Unfortunately, the reality is that the wireless carriers have enough market power and enough regulatory oomph to keep the friction of their vertically-integrated models intact. Sure, everyone wants to reach Google, and the iPhone allows them to - but the carriers are under no obligation (market-based or regulatory) to allow you to reach something you haven’t heard of yet, or use a device of which they don’t approve.