Gerard Hallaren

How Apple Sets Smartphone Industry Pricing

It is important to consider service plan pricing. For most data and voice plans the carriers all price close to each other. For the most popular voice and data bundles: Verizon is highest, AT&T is $5/month less than VZ, and Sprint is $5/month less than AT&T.

BTW if you are into saving money use a Novatel MiFi2200 on Sprint and then make and receive calls on your iPod Touch. Its what I often do .


On Oct 20 10:44 AM Mackerdude wrote:

> AT&T's high monthly rate seems to always get lost when considering
> the price of the iPhone though. And this has always confounded me.
> Why do "smart" people not factor in the rate of their monthly cell
> phone bill when considering the cost of a handset. If I'm going to
> pay $600 more for a two year contract with AT&T vs Sprint, then
> even if I pay $350 for a new Touch Pro 2 versus the old version of
> the iPhone for $99, that's still a $349 savings by going with the
> Sprint phone. Now people can argue about which handset is better,
> but its hard to argue the cost savings.
> PLEASE take the cost of your carrier's plan into consideration when
> measuring cost of a handset... This lack of consideration probably
> contributes to the fact that this country has such a problem with
> debt.

How Apple Sets Smartphone Industry Pricing

mega-dittos good buddy

Research in (Slow) Motion

RIMM is a small company launching multiple products into a tough and tight consumer market. It has neither the scale nor design expertise to succeed.

RIMM's two advantages -- push email and executive cachet -- have disappeared and the company has no replacements. Storm is a very nice me too phone, and the other new models are OK but not compelling. Not such a good position in the face of all phones getting smarter.

The sad thing is management believes its own B.S. about conquering the consumer and winning when it goes toe to toe with Apple.

The Benefits of a Standardized MicroUSB

Andrew,

I've great respect for your work. It is thoughtful, creative and challenging to my own analysis. You have influenced my thinking many times. However, in this instance, as with WAVE, I will stick to my guns.

A MicroUSB standard is a good thing for consumers but does little or nothing to help final demand for RIMM, Nokia, Apple, or any individual handset company. The reason is simple. A standard power supply reduces differentiation and increases commoditization of the industry. Maybe, just maybe, the small reduction in the cost of owning and using a mobile phone may trigger a elastic response from the market. However, we are talking about $20 out of a $6,000 purchase.

About the only impact is that this is another nip out of Motorola's hide. It was one of the first to lean hard on Micro USB as a standard power interface. Unfortunately this "competitive advantage" did not prevent Motorola’s massive share loss. So who cares now? I sure don't.

With respect to RIMM, everything it brought to the market -- push email, secure email and status to the user is gone.

There are many suppliers of push email many that will even work within an enterprise's security system. Even lowly Sprint will push email to virtually any phone, not just smart ones, for $10/month. Though with Yahoo, Google and MSN improving this is not much of an advantage for Sprint.

The iPhone is the new status symbol. Forget RIMM, it has no scale and management is far to righteous for reality.

Respectfully

Gerard6656