When it comes to consumer electronics, these are mostly the feel-good glory days for network operators.

Google Apps, Internet-enabled office software, networked digital picture frames from makers such as Kodak, Wi-Fi-enhanced portable music systems from MusicGremlin and SanDisk, and other Web-attached electronics are bringing the network operators’ spiffy new systems into the most intimate confines of the consumer’s life.

What would the iPod be without iTunes? Or YouTube without the Web?

But all is not sunshine and roses for the network operator. Several aggressive, well-funded consumer electronics players are not taking the network operators' new prominence lightly. They are bulking up and competing directly with the network operations, offering services that operators themselves hope to provide.

The full gamut of products and services is under attack: movies, music, advanced services, even network access itself. And these consumer electronics makers are not to be ignored by the network operator. They are battle-hardened techno street fighters with
decades of experience.

Potentially, everything from high-quality content to basic telephony—even network
access itself—is threatened. And with these dark intentions in mind, here are the five gadgets or services network operators will almost certainly come to despise:

1. Photo kiosks

Digital photography is hot. In fact, IDC, the Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm, predicts 30 million cameras will be sold this year. And consumers will become more dependent on network operators for storage and manipulation of their photos. After all, the memories digital images protect are invaluable. And consumers are paying to manipulate and store this data using network backup services such as Mozy (mozy.com) and Carbonite (carbonite.com).

But the digital photography industry is pushing hard to keep the network operator out of the way and stay in direct touch with the consumer. A new generation of self-serve picture-developing kiosks will bring the very successful ATM-in-every-retail-store model to photo developing and printing. Devices such as the Kodak Picture Kiosk, the FastFoto Photo Kiosk and a unit from Lucidiom all offer easy-to-use digital photo printing at small retailers, airports and other public places.

Consumers will be able to offload and print their photos directly from their cameras essentially anywhere they go with no network involvement. Besides offering on-demand backup for photos, these kiosks provide best-of-breed printing and ink that home printers cannot match.

Moreover, new wireless cameras are specially designed to make the connection to kiosks locally. Simply stand next to a kiosk with your camera, swipe your credit card and you’ll have your photos.

Where's the network here? Nowhere to be found.

2. Apple Inc.

No, Apple Inc. is not a single product or service. But it is simply impossible to understate the threat its line of hardware, software and services poses to network operators.

Apple computers and software are fabulous, powerful media tools that place essentially unlimited control of digital assets and services directly at the consumer’s fingertips—no dedicated network needed, thank you very much.

High-value-added content such as movies and music can be stored and manipulated marvelously on an iMac or Mac Pro. And its lines of peripherals such as the Mac Mini and the Apple TV—not to mention the iPod and other assets—place these tools in every nook and cranny of the consumer's lives.

Sure, Apple customers can and do use broadband connections to get their content, but the integrated Apple platform makes otherwise tricky tasks on a PC easy. On a Mac, consumers are equally happy getting their movies from Netflix, buying their DVDs from Wal-Mart or chatting on the phone wirelessly using any one of a growing number of broadband data start-ups. In fact, there are few services network operators offer that Apple doesn’t replicate easily and directly.

For a taste of what operators can expect from Apple, simply go through the details of AT&T’s deal with Steve Jobs over the iPhone. AT&T's cutting-edge wireless network was rendered nothing more than a digital dumbwaiter serving data to Apple’s new consumer phone. The iPhone does all the work and get's all the glory.

Could AT&T have mattered any less?

3. Game-enabled networks

Along the lines of Apple’s strategy of sucking value-added services out of the network operator’s grip, the latest gaming platforms, such as the Xbox 360, are offering powerful network services that are beginning to rival traditional network operator offerings.

The Xbox 360's Web service, dubbed Xbox Live has a very nice instant messaging service, a sophisticated form of telephony and a movie download service. You can even get purpose-built game peripherals that turn the Xbox 360 into a qwerty keyboard.

And considering that Xbox Live runs on a flat monthly fee, think of all the phone calls, movies and text messages gamers are not buying from the various network operators.

And that doesn’t even consider the brand damage the game service can do with predominantly younger gamers. Don't be fooled by the broadband connection these units use to communicate. Today's kids are learning that they don’t need an established telephony vendor to make phone calls, text message or otherwise communicate.

The network here is just a dumb pipe.

The one upside to this story is that Microsoft will make the Xbox 360 available by year’s end as part of the set-top box of its Microsoft TV service and will sell the unit only through its Microsoft TV partners, which includes AT&T.

4. D.I.Y. Networks

The promise of robust, inexpensive, wireless networks is not only changing the service provider business, it’s changing who is in the service provider business: the customer or the network operator.

A new generation of retail equipment vendors are creating cheap, easy-to-install wireless and cellular network extenders. These tools grow the reach and range of service providers’ networks beyond the limits of what the provider itself installs and maintains.

One outfit, Meraki Networks (meraki.net), has gone as far as to sell a $49 mesh-enabled wireless device that lets consumers build networks to their exact needs–say a specific room or building. They even have a $99 unit targeted for exterior use that can fit on a light pole or wall that will be very difficult for the operator to even see, much less to regulate.

Worse, there is a new wave of cellular network extenders from companies such as Wi-Ex (wi-ex.com) that are just the tip of the D.I.Y network wave. Get familiar with the term femtocell; these should really wreak havoc with wireless operators. Service providers will increasingly find a third party between them and the consumer: a gadget maker looking to hijack the network.

5. Social “networks”

We’re not talking about MySpace or Friendster here. Social networking has come to networking itself.

A company called Wisher Technologies is offering a beta version of its free, downloadable application, called Wisher (wisher.com/en/index.php), that lets users share their own Wi-Fi access with others without operator approval.

The Barcelona, Spain-based Wisher helps users find and identify other consumers with similar network access. They then can offer their access in trade for someone else’s around the corner, around the country or even around the world.

Wisher has the potential to turn network freeloading into legitimate content—content consumers can use to socialize and interact around the globe.

And big money is coming to the concept. At the beginning of the year, Wisher Technologies received an undisclosed investment from Benchmark Capital Europe, among others. That's the same venture capital firm that backed eBay, Vudu, 1800Flowers and many others.

It all has that 1990s Napster feel, doesn't it?

Jonathan Blum is a contributing writer at Fortune Small Business. His syndicated radio program “Strange New World” runs in 25 markets, and he maintains a tech blog, http://www.blumsday.com.