Skype says time is not ripe for cell phone version

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record industry anyone?

This whole stuff reminds me a lot of the record industry. They are just not willing to adapt to technological changes.
The record and film industry got themselves crushed by digital formats. The same is happening to phone companies.

Communication companies should understand that the future is generic data. They should focus on transfering data, not how much you talk, to which number, and ripping users off. In Europe, companies introduce ficticious charges like roaming (as soon as you cross from Germany to Holland, with the same carrier, you pay 4 times as much), homezone/out of homezone, ridiculous SMS prices, etc. You see small new companies like Base offering much more attractive plans, and still, big carriers manage to fool customers into their rip-offs.

Most cell phones are sold for pennies as part of 1 or 2 year contracts with big carriers, not in the retail mark. And no big carrier would sell as part of their contracts a phone supporting skype (let alone network support for them), and similarly, they would never bundle a wi-fi phone. Have you seen O2, Vodaphone, Cingular, etc offering a Wi-fi phone as part of their contract? Customers should do the math and see that it is much cheaper to buy a retail phone on your own and get a carrier with no monthly fee than getting a free Sony-Ericson with a 20 euros/month plan, allowing them to sponsor formula 1 teams.

But until people don't start to think and do the math, forcing carriers to update to the market, they will remain easy to control, just like record and film industry tells people what to listen and what to watch.

Posted by: patibulo   Posted on: 01/12/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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