FreeRange

A Sudden Appetite for Web Based Computers

The carriers subsidizing computers is the death knell of the industry. The carriers are the commodity service but under this scenario they dictate the market, just like they have in the cell phone industry - suppressing innovation, prohibiting features and services on devices that conflict with their own objectives, ruining the market and driving out profits for the manufacturers - let the consumer be damned pushing the manufacturers to squeeze costs, hold back innovations and accept minimal returns. The computer industry should resist this trend - it is the rush to the bottom that offers no way out from unprofitability, or minimum profits at best. They will lose control of their own destiny. This practice should be illegal. Let the carriers discount THEIR services when you sign up for wireless broadband with your computer instead. That makes much more sense, and is the right business model for the PC manufactures. Otherwise, what is the cost of a new computer? FREE with two years of service. A free product has no value! And the brand is destroyed.