Currently there is a complex and non-transparent pricing for phones purchased bundled with a service. This is used maximize profit share, disguise cost and create market power etc.

Google tried to challenge this model. This has nothing to do with whether people buy from brick and mortar stores or online.

I bought my phone online disentangled:

    http://www.clove.co.uk/

But I could have bought it online entangled:

    http://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop

There are many things where I currently prefer buying online. And others where I prefer brick and mortar. The online stores are getting better more quickly than the brick and mortar stores.

It may be an issue of timing. Online shopping only took off in the last decade; the batch of consumers born after 1990 will have been exposed to internet shopping since childhood and will need much less convincing of buying anything online (than those who grew up used to buying things in stores).