“Go, and never darken my towels again.” -Groucho Marx

That being said,

Nokia is being handed a sharp lesson in business basics: don’t compete with your biggest customers.

In August, the Finnish phone giant announced it was going “beyond the phone” and creating an online portal called Ovi in a bid to become a major service company. This would offer music, maps and games - bringing it into competition with its biggest channel: the network operators.

Revenge has been swift… - Operators show Nokia who wears the housut* TheRegister

Sure, cracks are beginning to appear in the dominance of the carriers in the mobile value chain. But just yet, not very big cracks.

Who’s deck will win out in the end? the carrier’s? the handsetmaker’s? third players (appl’s, goog’s, yhoo’s, msft’s?) or the open internet?

Place your bets.

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