Amazon.com will transition its mobile phone sales to go through Inphonic, the largest online dealer of mobile phones. This is a rare move for Amazon, a company that is more used to having other companies outsource their web store operations to them. According [subscription req] to the Wall Street Journal the deal is expected to bring $4-5 million in commission revenue over the first year.
"Amazon is obviously our biggest competitor," said InPhonic Chief Executive David Steinberg. "For us, it's a seismic shift."
For consumers this move may mean less of a price war for online phone sales--when Inphonic and Amazon were competing price drops were matched within hours.