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Awww. Do the poor wittle cellphone manufacturers have their poor wittle feelings hurt? Here, have a blankie. Really, I’m having trouble seeing what the compl
by sethg 17y ago
Awww. Do the poor wittle cellphone manufacturers have their poor wittle feelings hurt? Here, have a blankie.
Really, I’m having trouble seeing what the complaint is behind all the bombast. The author doesn’t claim that Google is selling the phones at a loss or doing anything else that would raise an antitrust issue. Carriers can offer the Nexus alongside other manufacturers’ Android phones and, for that matter, the ten thousand other cellphone models that clog the market. Most consumers will choose among those models based on prices and features, not brand name. (Microsoft sells keyboards and mice under its own brand name, but they’ve hardly put the other keyboard and mouse manufacturers out of business.)
So where’s the problem? That competition might reduce the profit margins of cellphone manufacturers? From my side of the salesman’s counter, that’s anything but a problem.
- nihilocrat 17y agoMy first thoughts as well. It's about time someone with actual clout gave the mobile phone cartel the shaft. Yes, it's a cartel, when you pay $.50 a text message off your plan with all carriers there's gotta be some price fixing behind the scenes.
- dfragnito 17y agoNot sure having one mobile provider will result in a reduction of price. It's free now but you will pay later.
- gaius 17y agoYes but who really does that? Except when roaming. Even a basic plan will have like a thousand texts a month.
- dpritchett 17y agoI pay for texts on a per-message basis. Single texts are a quarter or so and the smallest minimum text plan is about $5/mo. I don't send 20 texts in a month so I just forego the service altogether. I still send and receive the occasional text but I don't care enough to pay for the package. It helps that I have a 5GB smartphone data plan.