If you can't beat 'em... Part II

Vodafone is pretty much doing a "3". As I was saying yesterday, the operator seems to be getting its act together, in that case by partnering with MySpace.

Today, it's eBay, a mobile version of which will be arriving on Voda handsets later this year (Italy gets first dibs). O2 partnered with eBay a good while ago for i-Mode handsets, but - that said - today's announcement shows again that Arun Sarin and his team are accepting the new reality: operators won't win if they take on the Web giants, so the smart ones are hitching a ride instead.