Verizon Wireless Aims To Be Only App Store

"And while Verizon is romancing developers, the carrier isn't as solicitous of its handset partners. Verizon's Ryan Hughes, VP Partner Management, said in an interview Friday that the network operator's app store will be the sole marketplace on devices sold by the company, meaning stores such as Research In Motion's BlackBerry App World or Microsoft's Windows Mobile Marketplace won't get placement on Verizon handsets unless a consumer downloads them. Hughes also said that Verizon is focusing on aggregating content from four different developer communities: Windows Mobile, Palm, Android and BlackBerry."

It continues to amaze me how little reaction these sorts of things elicit when other carriers do them.  AT&T is constantly being derided for taking too much control over the user experience with the iPhone and yet here is Verizon pretty much taking an even bigger level control over their own handsets.  Everyone wants a Verizon iPhone so they can get off AT&T and use the much "friendlier" network.  Face it, folks.  Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint...  They're all the same.