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I think you're right, and that I just haven't been paying attention. I've seen headlines talking about a cheaper iPhone coming, and was surprised that the opaqu

by rz2k 13y ago

I think you're right, and that I just haven't been paying attention. I've seen headlines talking about a cheaper iPhone coming, and was surprised that the opaque costs are essentially the same. The industry seems ripe for disruption from someone, whether it's someone like T-Mobile or Apple/Google/Facebook buying itself a network and advertising in terms of the annual cost of ownership, perhaps even bundling the service with the device, like Amazon's Whispernet on a larger scale.

mikeash 13y ago
T-Mobile seems to be trying. They're fairly heavily advertising cheap bring-your-own-phone plans, particularly targeted at getting people to switch their smartphones from other carriers. People do care about their monthly cost, they just don't seem to weight it properly. Targeting people who already have a phone seems like a good move in that respect, because a lot of people wouldn't spend $400 up front to save $30/month, but they're often happy to save $30/month by switching carriers even though it means they don't get a phone upgrade. The biggest problem for me with what T-Mobile is doing is simply that their network coverage is not that great. Seems like it's kind of inherent when it comes to attempting to disrupt the industry: the smaller players will necessarily be those with the worst networks, and the large players with good networks have no incentive to make any changes.