Cell Phones Becoming Profitless 498
saccade.com writes "EE Times has a fascinating article
on how electronics companies are being sucked into a profitless
spiral by the cell phone market. More and more of the small consumer
gadgets are being folded into the phone: camera, music player,
PDA, GPS, etc. So the market for non-phone gadgets is slowly
going away as the phone picks up more functions. However, consumers
don't buy most phones; they are given away (or sold very cheap)
by the service providers as hooks to get people to sign up for
mobile service. So the service providers are demanding (and getting)
rock-bottom prices for fancy phones they can give away, and the
micro chip companies are forced into brutal competition for a
market that is shrinking into a single commodity gadget, the
phone."
Re:Good! (Score:3, Funny)
Pre-paid wireless (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Integration does have some benefits. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Crossing the Chasm (Score:5, Funny)
I can't wait until they add 3D accelerators that use the side of your face as a heat sink.
Re:Price of phones (Score:5, Funny)
As a side note if you do decide to go through the phone bin make sure you smell the phone you want to take... you would be shocked at how many times the vibrate function is flagrantly abused on old phones.
No I am not joking.
Re:Who hates that all-in-device (Score:2, Funny)
Beam me up Scotty! (Score:3, Funny)
Omigod! Its' a friggin TriCorder and communicator in one package... Captin! It's brilliant!
Combining Products (Score:4, Funny)
There have been countless times that I've been stuck somewhere for hours, had an electronic device with buttons and a screen, and could not play Tetris. So much boredom could have been avoided.
Slaves to the System (Score:3, Funny)
Wow, it's cool to have a cell phone so that everyone around me knows that I'm important enough to have one.
I like to turn up the volume and use special ring tones. This further reinforces my already shaky self image which causes me to think about what other people might be thinking about me on the bus and especially that goddam driver that always leers at me like he knows something I don't and that other goddam bitch who...
Sorry.
Re:Crossing the Chasm (Score:3, Funny)
Be carefull now. Some
Re:Very misleading and uninformed (Score:2, Funny)
For your information, I DO know who my company sells phones for, what their target sales price is, what their average price they get is, and how much they cost to manufacture. Unless you work for Nokia and can back up your figures I suggest you keep your big mouth shut.