>I don't see your logic! 6 months ago I paid a penny for
>a 16 harmony voice capable JPhone with a color
>screen, internet access and email as well as being
>a phone.
I hate to disappoint you but you are wrong.
You didn't pay for the phone. Not yet.
What you did is, you made a down-payment on a phone that cost in the
vicinity of 200 USD and up, and you and others on the same network are
going to pay for that phone in installments which are worked into your
regular charges and calls.
In markets which are approaching saturation, operators are more and more
moving away from subsidising handsets, at the very least the level of
subsidies are being reduced.
Such subsidies are another indicator of an immature market and they create
bubbles. This is like a big Ponzi scheme, and eventually someone will have
to pay for that nonsense. It is not sustainable.
Also, with GSM you can asily change SIM cards and use a phone that has been
subsidised by one network on another. SIM locking is practised bu some
networks, but regulators have mandated that SIM locks have to be taken off
if customers ask for it and pay a small administration fee (35 pounds in
the UK). Then there is always your friendly back-alley mobile phone dealer
who will do it for a fiver.
This is a further incentive for operators to cut down on subsidies.
I rather pay the full price for my phone, get cheaper services in return
and use the phone longer.
Anything else is nonsense, from an economy point of view.
This is also a reason why phones should be modular and software or
smartcard upgradeable.
> My home country, the US is the one with toy phones.
>The real ones are in Japan. Don't bash Japan when its not
>deservin it. There's plenty of things to bash Japan about
>but don't touch their cell phones!!!
I am not bashing Japan. I am bashing the practise of wasteful resource
management and creating bubbles, future eating, everything that moves us
further away from sustainable development.
> If want to bash, bash the
>concept of Dansonjohi.
Ok, then how about this ...
Have you ever thought that Japanese(predominantly male) managers and
engineers are exploiting the young ladies with all those toy phones that
have to be thrown away and replaced simply because they want to keep their
bubble growing ?
Has it ever occurred to you that creating all that hype and fueling the
notion that you need a new phone simply to stay "in" is just another form
of dansonjohi ?
[For the readrs non-affluent in Japanese: Dansonjohi refers to the
principle of male (dan) dominance (being exalted: son) and female (jo)
submission (hi)]
>A miniature thing is sometimes better than a bulky thing.
My GSM phone (Nokia 8810) is smaller than most Japanese phones and it is as
light as a Japanese phone. If it wasn't for the fact that GSM has to allow
higher power output because of geography it would be as light as a Japanese
phone, because the battery is what makes th difference. Anyway, what weight
are we talking here ? 110g versus 85g ! I couldn't care less about 25g
difference.
Sure, many phones in the US are a lot more bulky. That is because in rural
areas the only coverage is usually the old analog AMPS system and most
phones are dual-mode Analog/Digital phones that work on analog in the
countryside and on digital in cities, which causes a bulky design. AT&T
Wireless is now rolling out GSM 800 and will gradually reeplace the analog
system with GSM, which will lead to smaller phones in the US, too.
regards
benjamin
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Thu Jul 26 13:22:35 2001