The March Of Mobile Phone Progress Isn't Always Smooth Or Direct
from the be-patient dept
Tim Wu is discouraged. Writing in Slate last week, the telecom expert lamented the terms he's facing as an aspiring iPhone 2 owner: a two-year AT&T contract thanks to the handset's newfound inability to be unlocked and a move toward a more conventional subsidized handset model. Wu sees this as emblematic of a shift in the mobile industry:
The fact that someone like me is switching to AT&T is a sign of the times in the telephone world. The wireless industry was once and is still sometimes called a "poster child for competition." That kind of talk needs to end.
He's right -- but then, that kind of talk shouldn't have been started in the first place. The mobile market was defined by long contracts, locked handsets and a lack of prepaid options long before Apple arrived on the scene. Now it appears that it'll remain that way long after Apple.
Admittedly, this is a disappointment. Many looked at Apple's choice of a second-rate carrier -- one they could bully around -- as a sign that everything was about to change. Finally a handset manufacturer had arisen that was powerful enough to break the industry's self-serving revenue model and empower consumers! With the recent declaration of the iPhone 2's retreat toward conventional industry shadiness, those counting on Apple's benevolent technological dictatorship have found themselves disappointed (as they have before, and no doubt will again). They were fooling themselves anyway: did anyone really think Apple was going to tolerate phone unlocking forever?
But the outlook isn't all grim. As Wu notes, the Google-led Open Handset Alliance is trying to follow in Apple's footsteps with its own game-changing, must-have handsets -- only this time there seems to be a more expressly ideological slant to the effort. And Verizon's Open Development Initiative, while less than perfect, is perhaps even more encouraging in that it shows the industry has begun to acknowledge the market's need for more flexibility in data services.
And that's the real reason for hope: the march of progress. Anyone who tries to paint the mobile industry as the picture of efficient market competition is either in denial or deeply dishonest. But wireless services will inevitably become more important and more available, whether thanks to WiMAX, revived municipal wifi projects (now without capital costs, thanks to the magic of bankruptcy!), spectrum freed by digital broadcasting, or some other wireless technology. The mobile carriers haven't been great at competing amongst themselves, but you can bet they'll begin responding once consumers have reasonable alternatives.
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Filed Under: competition, markets, mobile phones, monopolies, tim wu
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Fuk em both.
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Whats that AOSmell ?
No thanks
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Re: Whats that AOSmell ?
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google needs to hurry up
Android might deliver that. Maybe.
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Re: google needs to hurry up
It is a completely open device as far as I know plus it is great for people who want to mod devices and the softwares. Great for free software freak.
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Re: google needs to hurry up
Then what you really want is Net Neutrality. Otherwise, all the open source handsets in the world won't help you.
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Re: google needs to hurry up
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The Business Model Sucks
It's akin to your cable company owning your TV and regulating what movies you can watch on your DVD player.
While I can see an argument for locking a phone due to a contract and subsidized phones, we should still be able to get the same phone without the subsidies or limitations caused by it being locked. Unlocked phones should be an option available to anyone willing to foot the costs - by not allowing the option, the telcos can do as they choose under the farce of competition in the industry.
Competition is not defined as we own you or they own you and no matter what you pay for, we own it too. That sounds more like communism than consumerism.
It's time to see some consumer groups lobby congress for change. This industry has held onto it's control of us for far too long. I doubt the current administration will allow it, but maybe the next one will actually show us a different kind of government - for the people this time.
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It strikes me as odd that antitrust law is used to break up companies, antitrust policies are changed, and then those changed policies are applied to return full circle and recreate what was originally broken up in the first place.
Antitrust law is a strange creature indeed.
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Mobile phone competition
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Re: Mobile phone competition
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Simple Solution
Cell phones are NOT a necessity. The most common arguments are the 'I need it in case of emergency' or 'I need it for work'. For emergencies, get a pre-paid. For work, get a life.
PS - I'm in Canada where it is even worse than the US. And I don't own a cell phone and won't until the BS ends.
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No cell phone? right!
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Re: No cell phone? right!
One added benefit during our time of crisis was that most drivers actually had both hands on their steering wheels until cell service was restored.
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Re: Re: No cell phone? right!
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Re: No cell phone? right!
PS - In the 3+ years on cable phone, unplanned outages have been 2 - 1 total outage for about 1 hour and 1 partial outage for a few hours (couldn't call numbers that where owned by the POTS company).
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I think I'm in that future, at least in the US. We think we are advanced but it's only a hidden fan blowing air in our faces. Our advanced phone network delivers so little value for so much money per month (especially compared to other areas of the world) that only a majority of stupid people and their (majority elected) stupid government could be satisfied.
Many may not agree with me, but ask yourself if you really think you are getting your money's worth?
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Not Sure, but...
I can understand the overall frustration with the telecoms in the US. But I wonder how much of this bitching and whining is just that, bitching and whining :p
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Nothing changed
2. The original iPhone was sold with the exact same terms. The only difference with the 3G version is that it is being sold much cheaper.
Just because they found out a way to unlock the original version after a while and the haven't found out a way to unlock the 3G version YET doesn't mean anything has changed.
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iPhone
Frank Polenose.
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