On Friday, June 14, 2002, at 11:39 , Curt Sampson wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Jun 2002, Benjamin Kowarsch wrote:
>
>> [Germany vs. Japan comparison deleted.]
No, it was *not *a comparison between Germany and Japan.
> I suppose I don't find this argument all that convincing because
> for the past four years or so, the Japanese phones have been far
> preferable to the German ones, and that situation does not appear
> to be about to change any time soon.
But, I wasn't comparing Japanese phones to German ones.
I was talking about a hypothetical Germany whose government had chosen
in the 80s not to embark on GSM and continue on a proprietary route
where the incumbent network owns the technology. If at all such a
Germany could only exist in a parallel universe, because the Germans did
not go that route and the situation found today in Germany has
absolutely nothing to do with the scenario I was talking about.
You are invited to replace the name "Germany" with something else, ie
"Hypoland" and read the scenario again.
> One can blah blah blah about theory of competition and all of that,
With all due respect, Curt, there can be absolutely no doubt about the
benefits of markets and competition, which are well established and
accepted. Whether you accept that or not is of no significance. All you
may accomplish is to damage your own credibility.
As a lesson in how "theoretic" the effects of not being competitive are,
you may want to ask the generation of perpetual unemployed in the
shipbuilding areas of Northern England, Germany and Poland how much they
lost out as a result of their governments protecting their domestic
shipbuilding industry to death.
Why is it that Nokia is number one in the GSM world ? Why is it that
Samsung is number one in the CDMA world ? Don't tell me that there was
no benefit for the Japanese economy if their manufacturers where up
there with Nokia and Samsung. They are not up there because their
government chose to not let them compete and in the process they became
weenies.
This has happened so many times before and always there have been people
who insisted on your line of argument right to the last moment before
factories closed and workers were sent home.
> but what it comes down to in the end are some simple facts:
>
> 1. My phone is smaller, lighter, far more powerful, and has a
> longer lasting battery than any phone you can get in Germany.
>
> 2. I can browse the web on my phone, with graphics (in colour
> even!), and use this capability to do useful stuff.
>
> 3. From my phone, I can exchange e-mail with anyone in the
> world with a standard e-mail account, for this I pay about 1/10
> what a German user pays to send an SMS message.
>
> Regardless of the techniques used to get there, it's pretty clear
> to me which consumers are the winners here.
As I said, on the short term protectionism may seem to have attractions,
but in the long term competitive open markets win hands down.
Besides, one may argue what is of greater value, the gimmicks you
described or the competitiveness of the Japanese industry in
international markets.
regards
benjamin
Received on Fri Jun 14 09:36:43 2002