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| Reduced carrier subsidies increase sales of separate smartphones |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-08-17 22:48:46 |
| I always see The Netherlands - my home country - as a small, easily graspable version of other, larger and more important western countries and even the west as a whole. In light of this, Tweakers.net's Arnoud Wokke points to a very interesting report about the Dutch telecommunications market. This reports notes a trend that, if present in the rest of the world, could have serious effects for phone makers. |
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| Brazil |
| By MarkVVV on 2012-08-17 23:03:35 |
| Well, Thom, here in Brazil it's the exact opposite situation. We've always paid for our phones, since subsides were pretty low and phone charges were high. But now, we're leaning heavily towards carriers/manufacters tie-in, and it's a pretty big market, so i don't think it's a worldwide trend. |
 - Score: 4 |
| EU operators to drop subsidies totally |
| By JAlexoid on 2012-08-17 23:35:11 |
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There is a lot of talk among all of major EU operators to drop the subsidised prices altogether. The operators get much more flexibility and you get better plans. I doubt that the subsidies will be dropped, but more and more operators are going for leasing model(where you pay for your plan and separate payment for your phone - like you would paying out a lease with 0% interest) |
| - Score: 3 |
| Deliberate Distortion? |
| By JokeyRhyme on 2012-08-18 00:09:52 |
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I've read elsewhere that the carrier subsidies and plans in the USA tend to make the iPhone look as affordable as other options (or make those other options looks as expensive). In EU and elsewhere, there is otherwise a significant difference in total cost of ownership, with Android devices tending to be quite a bit cheaper than the iPhone. I wonder how much of this is part of secret contracts between Apple and the USA carriers? Would Apple enjoy the same lead it has in USA without these deals? |
| - Score: 4 |
| Honestly ... |
| By WorknMan on 2012-08-18 00:58:34 |
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I would rather just pay the $600+ up front and pay a cheaper monthly rate, thereby saving money over time. However, with some carriers in the US (like Verizon), the monthly fee is the same whether you buy the phone up front, or get it at a subsidized rate. Therefore, it makes no sense to pay full price on the phone. This may be different on other carriers in the US, but not sure. I'm on my parents' family plan on AT&T now, so saving quite a bit from what I was paying with Verizon. |
| - Score: 3 |
| carrier subsidies are essential |
| By unclefester on 2012-08-18 04:08:09 |
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It is extremely hard to sell expensive phones without carier subsidies. http://www.tech-thoughts.net/201... |
| - Score: 5 |
| RE: Honestly ... |
| By gfolkert on 2012-08-18 04:30:58 |
|
Beginning of August, I got 4 - Samsung Galaxy Nexus Phones, 1 - Motorola Droid RAZR and plenty of addons/accessories with a total bill "pre-subsidy" of nearly $4,000. Post subsidy: $159.62, including all fees and setup. I'm also paying about $70 less per month than I was with 2 - Droid-X, 1 - LG Ultimate Java Phone, 2 - Nokia "Text and Phone" phones. And now is with a data plan that matches what I've used in the last 2 years with the DroidX and a USB Broadband Modem. Additional bandwidth in 2GB Chunks is only $10. I have no limit phone minutes and texts. My daughters (one married with 2 kids, other in 2nd year College) use about 14,000/month of texts. I get about 2000 pages from monitoring systems. My oldest daughter has her phone hermetically attached to her ear, when she isn't texting. My Wife in on the other end of many of the minutes and texts from both my Daughters. My Son-in-law uses about 700 minutes a month (mostly to my oldest daughter) and about 4 texts. Other than that, I feel I got a pretty good plan and some really nice phones (for almost dirt). Once you wrangle the Battery usage issue on the Nexus Phone... it lasts about 3 days for me and about 35 hours for my wife. Which is longer than each of our previous phones. (Me DroidX and her the Java Phone) So... I feel sorry for you peeps getting Subsidies dropped. |
| - Score: 1 |
| Seperate is a lot cheaper in Belgium |
| By spinnekopje on 2012-08-18 05:24:40 |
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In Belgium you clearly haven't done the maths when you choose to pay your (smart)phone with your contract. I have seen contracts where you easily pay triple the price compared to the same contract and phone seperately. We are lucky that all phones (as far as I know) that are sold here are simlock free, so you can easily choose another phone or sell your phone to someone else. I think that all people I know have bought their phone seperate from their contract and that is also true for the more expensive smartphones. |
| - Score: 4 |
| multiplr price points |
| By pos3 on 2012-08-18 05:51:55 |
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We have paying the full price for mobile for a long time in India. Hence having mobiles at various price point is good idea here. Nokia rose to no.1 with that strategy and samsung is following it. iPhone share is very very low here, with Android leading the segment. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[2]: Honestly ... |
| By B. Janssen on 2012-08-18 06:36:59 |
| I'm happy that you feel you are getting a good deal. I, however, am confused by your summary. How much are you paying each month? |
| - Score: 3 |
| UK |
| By henderson101 on 2012-08-18 08:01:57 |
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In the UK we have always had low subsidies on the iPhone and other Smart phones. At the moment though, all of the subsides at increasing. Example? My first iPhone cost over £100 on an 18month contract for £35 a month. My next was similar in cost, but on a 24month contract. Now, you can get a 3GS free on a cheaper contract and a 4 free on my contract level. As a comparison, the Galaxy 3 is free on a similar contract, or under £50 - depends on which provider or reseller you go to. But the android phones have always had better/ larger subsidies, which is one reason they sell so well here. The new iphone will have to be similar to the Galaxy 3 to compete. |
| - Score: 3 |
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