Comparison of Mobile Phone Markets

[Jonathan Mosen]

Well, in terms of voice, there is no comparison. The US leaves new Zealand
way in the dust. Getting a thousand minutes a month plus free calls to the
same carrier and free calls throughout the country all weekend and every
night is incredibly cheap in the US. The caveat though is that in the US,
the owner of the cell phone is responsible for the cost of incoming calls,
which is most odd. So those minutes have to account for people who call you
as well.

Where the US is way behind is in high speed data services, and in the uptake
of services that involve the use of data such as music services over the
phone etc.

The carriers in the US also have people locked into contracts with punitive
penalties if you disconnect early, whereas in most other markets, pay as you
go plans are more popular.

Also the culture is very different. many US customers don't actually realise
that you can buy unlocked, unbranded GSM phones and put a sim card in them,
and until very recently, cell carriers didn't want them to know this. And in
the case of CDMA providers like Verizon, they really have their customers by
the short and curlies because of the nature of the technology. I think the
use of CDMA by earlier carriers in the US has really been disadvantageous to
the market, since GSM has had to use unorthodox frequencies and limit the
number of good handsets with data options that are worth anything.

On average, people are using much more primitive handsets in the US although
there are always exceptions to this rule, and Windows Mobile seems to have a
higher penetration on phones in the US than other markets. I wish Nokia
would improve their marketing a bit in the US. That said, the N95 seems to
be the smartphone of choice despite the over-hyped iPhone. At least the
iPhone has stimulated interest from the US market in what is actually
possible on phones these days.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: blindphones-bounces at mosenexplosion.com
[mailto:blindphones-bounces at mosenexplosion.com] On Behalf Of simon
Sent: Friday, 18 January 2008 5:14 p.m.
To: The Accessible Phones Discussion List
Subject: Re: Comparison of Mobile Phone Markets

how does it compare to the mobile market in nz?
At 03:57 p.m. 18/01/2008, you wrote:
>I just read the first in a series of posts that compare the US mobile phone
>market against European and other markets. It makes fascinating reading,
and
>is very scathing of the mobile phone industry in the US.
>
>http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/01/the_usa_series_prelude_to_buying_a_mobil
e
>_phone_in_america.html
>
>You received this message because you subscribed to the Accessible 
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>
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>blindphones-unsubscribe at mosenexplosion.com


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