Wired magazine published an interesting article with background information about how the iPhone was developed at Apple and how Steve Jobs managed convince carriers to give him all the freedom to do what he wanted and how he talked them into giving him a share of the bit-pipe revenue. While carriers in the past had nightmares about only becoming a bit-pipe they are now even sharing the revenue with a handset manufacturer. Flexibility or desperation? But maybe they have seen that being a bit-pipe is actually being a long tail enabler?