I guess you're just not into the latest high tech phones, otherwise you'd understand why the T-Mobile UK line-up is so much better than the USA one.
I guess you're just not into the latest high tech phones, otherwise you'd understand why the T-Mobile UK line-up is so much better than the USA one.
While I love my Eurogeeks as much as the next guy, Europe lags the US in wireless data.
Europe only had a cell phone boom because of the industry rules - calling party pays (as opposed to US model of both parties pay).
And of course, the GSM standard helps.
Given the market, the whole model is to make money off the phones, not the service. This leads to more handsets, etc.
As for knee-jerk for the iPhone, I 'm not sure what you mean...I bet all the Eurogeeks are creaming themselves for the latest Cupertino creation.
I dont think that bold part is true. Calling party pays is very good, because it puts you in control of your mobile expenditure. This helped the mobile phone boom while calling charges were very high, which was a stimulus for the adoption of the technology.
The big variety of handsets are primarily fueled by the bling-factor of having the latest handset. Contracts tend to be one year long, and churn is high, so to retain a off-contract customer the carrier has to offer the latest handset.
To steal the very same customer away the other carriers would offer a good handset and very steep subsidies, often free.
So primarily its a social phenomena, not a technological one.
The carriers make their money on calling plans, not on the handsets itself. Recently they have been promoting data services as an additional revenue earner, but this is still slow to get up and running.
This is the UK perspective BTW.
Re euro-geeks wanting the IPhone - I think it needs at least GPS to make it extremely desirable, else it will look just like a mid-range device.
Surur
Very well stated, surur. What appalls me is the knee-jerk reaction to Apple by some who complain about US offerings. As if Samsung. Moto, or even [gasp] HTC is breaking the mold and creating anything which pushes the envelope to the point of risking it all. Would those complaining about Apple prefer this baby was aborted vs allowed to be born and grow into something more substantial?
No, I myself would like to see the phone come out. The screen rules!
But why can't they put a simple IM client on a $600 LOCKED phone? No 3G chip on the only US 3G network(although that may have something to do with Qualcomm) which they happen to be on? No 3rd party apps? So will Apple be responding to market demand when the need for a 3rd party app arises(and it almost always does), and fill the gap by allowing us to download apps it created in place of 3rd party apps? Will this sync with business email? From what I understand, maybe not.
Europe only had a cell phone boom because of the industry rules - calling party pays (as opposed to US model of both parties pay).
And of course, the GSM standard helps.
I agree...cell phones should be like landlines...calling party pays...but the FCC decided that consumers needed a good bending over.
I agree...cell phones should be like landlines...calling party pays...but the FCC decided that consumers needed a good bending over.
The worst is charging to receive text messages...you can't control that (unless you shut it off completely.)
Read my post again. Afford it means to me it practical, cost effective and does everything you need. An expensive car that I can't carry the kids in is not a good value for me.
Well then I was confused by your use of afford. To me, afford means to have the money to buy, not want or desire: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/afford . If the phone doesn't meet your needs that is okay, but then you would not have a strong interest in buying it then--you would just be like the other 91%. You could afford it, but choose not to buy it because it doesn't fit your needs. That's clearly a different situation than someone wanting a $100,000 car and not being able to afford it. Or a situation where you need a minivan to haul 8 people but are looking at a 2-seater sports car. In both these situations you would *NOT* have a strong interest in buying one of these and would not show up in the 9%.
It appears to me you don't like some missing features of the phone, and that is fine, but your post clearly tries to downplay the fact that 9% of the people who can afford the iPhone and have a strong interest in buying it. Just because you are in the majority does not mean the minority is wrong or the survey is wrong.