Walking around Akihabara and seeing all the phones at 1 Yen - how much
of my soul am I losing to get these prices?
The North American phones typically are subsidized the the Cellular
provider, and 'locked' onto their network.
From my time in Japan, I know that cellular prices are much cheaper than
in Canada. By using resources such as Kakaku, I can tell some current
prices of handset, but it isn't clear to me what type of contract is
required.
Can I assume that pricing that I see at Kakaku is only for a new
subscriber? How do Docomo/Jphone/AU etc. handle upgrades? Again, in
North America a customer typically has to 'finish' his 2 or 3 year
contract before being eligible for a hardware discount. And the upgrade
discounts aren't nearly as attractive as the 'new buyer' discounts.
Mike
Received on Tue Feb 5 15:58:15 2002