So It Was The Carriers Who Stopped The iTunes Phone

from the let-them-live-with-it dept

While Motorola's Ed Zander made a gallant effort to cover for the wireless carriers by claiming the Motorola iTunes phone was really delayed due to Apple's marketing strategy, more and more evidence is appearing suggesting that (as most had assumed from the beginning) it's really the wireless carriers who are freaking out that (oh no!) content might somehow get on phones without them getting a cut. This is the classic walled garden mindset of the carriers, and it's exactly what's going to drag them down. While the carriers want to pretend they're music moguls and make sure their hand is one of many in the tiny pie, others are working on ways to route around the carriers. The more complicated the carriers make it, the more it's just going to push users to find other solutions, and then the carriers will be guaranteed not to get a cut at all. Their best bet is to embrace the offerings that are coming along as a way to sell more phones and more service. Stop worrying about getting their few pennies for each song. Even if they got it, it wouldn't last long. Once again, the carriers are showing that they've learned nothing from the internet.
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  • identicon
    jbelkin, 25 Mar 2005 @ 10:36am

    Great Summary!

    You hit it right on the button - they keep wondering why less than 5% of their users want the "premium" monthly package - they think it's just marketing that's holding people back.

    And you touched upon the bigger question - they cannot design a phone interface to save their life. It takes me 5 minutes to remember how to change the date & time or there are bizarre choices like DMSC on or off? WTF?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2005 @ 12:03pm

      Re: Great Summary!

      um, time and date settings are phone settings, not carrier settings...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Mike (profile), 25 Mar 2005 @ 1:10pm

        Re: Great Summary!

        Time and date settings depend on the phone and the carrier... Some of them are phone specific, some of them are broadcast from the tower. So, depending on his phone (and carrier) he could be right.

        link to this | view in chronology ]


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