Regarding the photo caption: I'm sure Jobs is terrified of phones with an MSRP that's a fraction of Apple's profit margin. Just look how netbooks are killing Apple's... er. Oh. Right.
Anyway, I look forward to the pressure it puts on service providers.
This was possibly one of the most amusing panels I went to at Penguicon. This guy has a history of being right... I hope that continues. I'd love to be able to pick up Android phones unsubsidized and never have to sign another wireless contract again.
The problem is, that all plans are designed with the 2-year subsidy built-in. The only benefit of not using the upgrade credits in most cases is to keep yourself from being locked in.
If carriers would offer no-contract, with the same feature set and a lower price and a bring-your-own phone mentality across the board (T-Mobile has/had something close), that would make a LOT of people (myself included) very happy.
T-Mobile does have this. It's listed as a "pre-paid" plan. You can get Unlimited talk, text and 2GB of data for 70/mo. With a contract and phone subsidy, you can get Unlimited talk, text and 200MB of data for 79.99. That is, of course, only one example.
@Thrax - yes, I realize that, I mean for a reasonable price though and you know that you trolling trolly mctrollerson.
That's not a bad plan, but I'd like something closer to Sprint's EPRP single-user plan (500 minutes, unlimited text, unlimited date), which is currently $59.99/month, but for $10-20/month cheaper if I bring my own phone.
That's par for the course. It's one of the many sticky things with cell providers (all of them). If you want a smartphone of any type, even if you don't want cell data (just WiFi), then you have to pay for a data plan.
Hopefully, these phones will start changing trends in general and allow us to really pick the options we want.
I stopped getting my phones through carriers about a decade ago when I got furious at how crappy the phones were compared to what was available and how they hijacked them to put their own shit firmware on them. Haven't looked back. I switch phones all the time.
I wouldn't mind more compelling PAYG options, though.
AlexDeGruven
Wut?Meechigan Icrontian
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Anyway, I look forward to the pressure it puts on service providers.
Quote of the panel: "Nokia? ... They're so f*cked"
Or any smart phone for that mater!
You can get that... you just can't use the data features unless you're on a wifi network.
You can buy every single Android phone ever made off the shelf.
If carriers would offer no-contract, with the same feature set and a lower price and a bring-your-own phone mentality across the board (T-Mobile has/had something close), that would make a LOT of people (myself included) very happy.
@Thrax - yes, I realize that, I mean for a reasonable price though and you know that you trolling trolly mctrollerson.
Hopefully, these phones will start changing trends in general and allow us to really pick the options we want.
I wouldn't mind more compelling PAYG options, though.