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| Subsidy-free option a good idea They might not necessarily be "cheaper," but these new price plans are pretty innovative, especially when it comes to the subsidy-free service option.
A device subsidy from a wireless carrier causes a lot of problems for the 1.) consumer (they don't understand the true cost of the device, they can't upgrade as often as they want, they don't understand the contract, etc.), 2.) the device maker (little incentive for cost control, not really competing in the marketplace, weaker competitors propped up by desperate carriers), and 3.) carriers (ridiculous rising costs, lower customer satisfaction due to frustrated customers not fully understanding the subsidy business model, etc.).
The biggest problem is that once a customer's contract (usually 24 months) is up, their service pricing doesn't go down! This is going to be the next battle ground and T-Mobile is wisely addressing the issue now.
Why not disconnect the cost of the device from the underlying service? Everybody wins (once they adapt). | | |
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| said by SubsBad :
They might not necessarily be "cheaper," but these new price plans are pretty innovative, especially when it comes to the subsidy-free service option.
A device subsidy from a wireless carrier causes a lot of problems for the 1.) consumer (they don't understand the true cost of the device, they can't upgrade as often as they want, they don't understand the contract, etc.), 2.) the device maker (little incentive for cost control, not really competing in the marketplace, weaker competitors propped up by desperate carriers), and 3.) carriers (ridiculous rising costs, lower customer satisfaction due to frustrated customers not fully understanding the subsidy business model, etc.).
The biggest problem is that once a customer's contract (usually 24 months) is up, their service pricing doesn't go down! This is going to be the next battle ground and T-Mobile is wisely addressing the issue now.
Why not disconnect the cost of the device from the underlying service? Everybody wins (once they adapt).
That some sense, but alot of the tech on phone service is incompatible across carriers:
»www.billshrink.com/cell-phones/c···dex.html
Unfortunately, the subsidy model is the business domain of prepaid MVNO carriers which is the HIGHEST GROWTH within the cell industry (today, while postpaid account totals are shrinking). So, unless post paid carriers can get more competitive, the industry will be at odds between having phones just do talk & text, or having them be an everything device. Right now, with the cost of netbooks being what they are.. wouldn't the better deal be to have a basic prepaid phone & a netbook or be screwed over with the walled garden everything device and locked to a carrier contract?
Depending upon your budget you would choose one or the other.. most poor people have 1-2 choices. Those with a budget of $100 a month per phone for service have choices. Others with $7/month have one (tracfone). Also, smart phones can't do everything a netbook/laptop can, yet. Also, there are proprietary media devices such as the Itouch, Archos, Zune and others that have wifi and either have or will be devleoping applications in the future.. key features of which are messaging/email/voip/multimedia player. | |
 tiger72SexaT duorPPremium
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO
kudos:1
 ·T-Mobile US
| This actually helps T-Mobile. Thanks to technology, if you get a TMO 3g phone and want to keep your phone but switch to someone else, you'll lose 3g data on the other carrier, and will likely want to simply stay with TMO. It's a backdoor network-lock.
Unfortunately, the subsidy model is the business domain of prepaid MVNO carriers which is the HIGHEST GROWTH within the cell industry (today, while postpaid account totals are shrinking). So, unless post paid carriers can get more competitive, the industry will be at odds between having phones just do talk & text, or having them be an everything device. Right now, with the cost of netbooks being what they are.. wouldn't the better deal be to have a basic prepaid phone & a netbook or be screwed over with the walled garden everything device and locked to a carrier contract? The Nonsubsidy model is the domain of prepaids. They don't subsidize their phones, and thus have lower prices.
As for netbooks - it's not very helpful to carry around a netbook if you're in your car and you need google maps for directions (no GPS on netbooks anyways). Or if you're trying to get pricing data in the store (like ShopSaavy). Or if you're at work and want to listen to your music collection (like Orb/imeem/local device). There are many things that smartphones do that save time and money, and netbooks don't provide that. Data plans for netbooks are also more expensive.
Depending upon your budget you would choose one or the other.. most poor people have 1-2 choices. Those with a budget of $100 a month per phone for service have choices. Others with $7/month have one (tracfone). Also, smart phones can't do everything a netbook/laptop can, yet. Also, there are proprietary media devices such as the Itouch, Archos, Zune and others that have wifi and either have or will be devleoping applications in the future.. key features of which are messaging/email/voip/multimedia player. Isn't the benefit of technology being able to cut down on devices? Are you honestly going to carry around a backpack of technology, while hoping for wifi to make use of half of it, solely to avoid a smartphone which can do everything you listed above?
If you don't need data, stick with prepaid. But the instant you need mobile data - spotty WiFi and a netbook are no replacement to an omnipresent mobile web and smartphone.
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"What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? ...If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning."
-United States Secretary of Defense (1961-1968) Robert S. McNamara | |
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