The WSJ takes a look at how Best Buy is ramping up its mobile phones sales strategy. In partnership with Europe’s Carphone Warehouse—a mobile retail pioneer—Best Buy Mobile has been opening shops that sell myriad handsets from a range of operators. Best Buy is banking on lots of choice, and a sales staff to help navigate through it, to differentiate itself from operator-based retailers and more traditional rivals like Circuit City and RadioShack.

SEE ALSO: Best Buy Expands Mobile Plans; Essar Plans 5K Mobile Retail Stores Across India

The move comes at a key time in the mobile industry, says the article: as phones become more multimedia-rich, buyers not only need more advice on what to buy, but on how to use the handsets once they have them. Staff reportedly get 40 hours of training before they can hit the sales floor.

It will be worth watching whether Best Buy follows through on some of CPW’s other business ideas. The company also sells its own mobile phone service (as an MVNO) as well as broadband. A source tells us CPW may be considering a move into IPTV, too. And of course CPW, like all other major mobile retailing names, has been named as a possible partner for Apple in its European iPhone launch.