N-Gage Subsidies Rear Their Ugly Heads
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Everyone knows that most mobile phone sales are subsidized (often heavily) by the carriers who hope to make the money back on service fees. However, this presented a pretty big problem for Nokia in offering the N-Gage gaming device/phone. They wanted carriers to sell it as well as retail gaming stores, but the gaming stores have no reason to offer a subsidy. Nokia hoped that no one would offer a subsidy. That didn't happen. The Register is reporting that carriers are offering huge subsidies, which could explain why retail gaming store sales are dreadful.
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