The whole revenue model of subsidizing the phone and making it up on
the traffic (call or email) militates against manufacturers creating
handsets that have features that users want, but which do not generate
much traffic.
Can someone tell me to what extent the high end Japanese handsets are
subsidized at present? There seems to be an assumption that around
35,000yen is the absolute max that most consumers will pay.
And that is sad. Hack a basic phone onto a 40gig ipod, or onto a decent
30,000yen superslim camera and you have something with some real
appeal. But it would cost a lot more.
I believe a fairly large class of consumers would cheerfully pay more
for something that was actually GOOD at all the things it did. (See
evidence exhibit A: "the ipod": mi'lud)
Outside the sad geek/schoolgirl with the attention span of a gnat
fraternity/soriety, accustomed as they are to holding conversations in
snippets of no more than 500 characters, there isn't a lot in the
latest generation of Japanese phones (considered as communication
devices) to make one want to buy them. For a largish class of consumers
the manufacturers have simply lost the plot.
Nick
Received on Mon Dec 22 08:35:55 2003