Analysts are priming the pump for this week’s CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas by shifting the focus away from handset design and toward innovative programs related to GPS, messaging, games and other services. Research in Motion plans to launch "App World," in response to Apple’s wildly successful "App Store." Not to be outdone, Google has their "Android Marketplace" and Microsoft unveiled their "Windows Marketplace for Mobile" last month.

We can’t wait for handsets, access plans and applications to all be unbundled, giving consumers the ability to buy "best of breed" of each. Can you imagine how different the personal computer market would have been if you could only use Microsoft Word on Dell computers, or if you could only get Verizon broadband access on Gateway computers?

Skype is launching iPhone software that will enable callers to use local wi-fi networks to make free calls to other Skype users, or low-cost (2.1 cents per minute) calls to any other user. In effect, this enables iPhone users to cancel their AT&T access plans (as long as they’re near an open wi-fi hotspot) and enables owners of Apple’s iTouch to make phone calls via wi-fi as long as they add a microphone to their device. (The iTouch has virtually all the features of an iPhone, without the phone