Note: Shame on me for calling it FOTA per se - because that's an OMA protocol.  I'm talking more about the principles of the OS manufacturers taking more control of their devices' destiny.

Historically, you bought a device and that was basically it.  There were few, if any, updates to the device's OS and that was fine.  You bought a new device and you got all the greatest bells and whistles...along with the latest bugs.  While OS manufacturers, including Microsoft would provide updates to existing handsets (on occasion), they were at the mercy of the carriers (and the OEMs) in terms of deciding whether to provide the update to users. That all changed with the iPhone.

Apple completely changed the playing field for smartphones - on so many different levels - but most notably as it was able to instantly dictate how ITS device/platform was going to function, as opposed to being at the mercy of myriad carriers' whims.

Android and Palm followed suit, to the point where Palm will push out the update whether you want it or not (not the worst thing, by the way).  So now Microsoft is rumored to be joining the game...much like it does on the PC side of things.  OEMs can add whatever they want to differentiate their PCs, but it's Windows Update you see most often, and not your PC manufacturer's update tool.

So what does this do to carriers?  A lot actually.  Their grip on handset manufacturers is slipping even further.  App stores are also marginalizing the role of carriers.  Now mind you, carriers are launching their own app stores, but why would a user go there as opposed to the one created by and tailored for the handset maker?  While carriers are creating their own app stores, I can't see how this will work unless it's for "feature phones" and if you believe most pundits, smartphones are going to grab more and more market share over time.  (Note, I believe it because my colleagues say so)

So if there are going to be more and more smartphones in the market, and it's the handset manufacturers that are going to have more (most) control over their devices, where does that leave the carriers?  What about all the extra "features" (read: bloatware) they put on devices?  My sense is savvy users will want less and less of that. 

Hmmm...is this the (very) beginning of the non-carrier dominated device sales channel?  That wouldn't be a bad thing in my opinion. The extreme perspective is that carriers will have to create applications for each vendor's app store and get them "approved" along with iFart and all the other applications out there.  Now wouldn't that be a change in tide?