Some juicy news out of CTIA last night: Samsung told me they'll soon join Sony Ericsson and Nokia in selling their high-end phones directly to US consumers. That includes phones like the slim SGH-D900 3-megapixel slider cameraphone you see at left, and hopefully the powerful, super-thin X820 phone I reviewed on PCMag.com as well. You'll be able to buy these phones online straight from Samsung.

For years now, carriers have controlled which phones US consumers get to see, touch, and use. That's choked off a lot of attractive phones from the US market. I'm very encouraged by moves like Nokia's new stores, where N-series and E-series high-end phones have been flying off the shelves; if the carriers don't want to bother selling them, well, that's fine -- just don't stop anyone else from doing so! Samsung joining the direct-to-consumer crowd is a very good thing.

As with all direct sales phones, Samsung's models will work on Cingular, T-Mobile and other GSM carriers. The networks Sprint and Verizon run are much more locked down, so you can't use any phones you don't buy from Sprint or Verizon.

So how about it, Motorola?