Rob Beschizza in Wired: 10 Reasons To Hate Cellphone Carriers.
Hate and gripes withstanding, maybe this will help. Can’t make things worse.
Could they make more money if their customers weren’t captive?
If so, give us some examples.
Low number
3 responses to “Low number”
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[…] A wireless phone is a piece of hardware. The heart of the phone is the SIM card, not the phone. So when Motorola makes the RAZR2 and then tweaks the OS for Verizon or AT&T or whatever, the consumer is stuck with the fixed price and a lock-in on the contract for 12-24 months. Bonus Link […]
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Sure they could. I just wrote a post about taking the phones out of their hands, for starters. Let’s open that all the way up and let the manufacturers take the lead on making phones. Do we ALL need phones that play music, surf the Web, download our email, take pictures, video and text? I don’t think so.
When the carriers let go of their obsession with equipment and start thinking about services, they make the whole cell phone universe better for manufacturers and customers. Let Motorola make a universal RAZR 2 that will work on any cellular network. Then let the carriers figure out how best to price and create services that are valuable to us and make money for them. Why are they giving all the control and profit for premium text services over to other companies? Why not create their own and while they’re at it, give customers tools to make sure the kids don’t abuse the services, too?
Based on the comments to those posts you linked, I’d say that cell phone carriers have become lower than life insurance agents in the estimation of customers. They certainly are to me. At least life insurance agents give me a choice.
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they potentially could make more money from me…. i will NEVER buy a ringtone from verizon, they are not as good as the ones i could make myself, and am just biding my time until the contract ends… they sold me a crippled phone (krzr km1) for near full price, and what they got for their controlled climate was a customer who has enmity for them, and can’t wait to leave…
what if they offered a climate where customer generated ringtones were happily allowed, even sold to other customers, and everybody wins…. but they are too corporate to think like that…
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