I completely agree. For a while I was wondering whether an MVNO operator like Virgin Mobile (piggybacking on Sprint) that exclusively works with iPhones (a fair

I completely agree. For a while I was wondering whether an MVNO operator like Virgin Mobile (piggybacking on Sprint) that exclusively works with iPhones (a fairly recent change) was a stealth move by Apple to test the waters. As you rightly pointed out, it just doesn't make sense for Apple, and in the broader sense, the bigger these companies get, the worse it is for consumer choice.