How to destroy your own market
by Volker Weber
Joi Ito is not the first person I come across who got burned by using GPRS. While the usual damage was in the hundreds of Dollars, he was hit harder:
Land in a random city, flip open my PowerBook, click, "connect" and I was immediately online via bluetooth, gprs and my T-Mobile roaming. Internet everywhere. It was sooo cool... until I got my bill. $3500 for one month of mobile abandon. At $3500 / month, I would say that it works, "technically" but is totally unacceptable socially and economically.
If this happens to you once, or you have a friend who has had this experience, you have learned never to use your phone for anything but voice calls or SMS. While T-Mobile has a nice $20 "all you can eat" plan in the US they charge their market to death here. Unless they come up with an unmetered plan here, I don't see anybody use their service.
Comments
What's this ... something that is better in the US? ;-)
Unmetered broadband is going to be permanently in the $50/month range in the US by end of the year. That's per provider that you use. In my case that would be < $100/month for wired and wireless broadband. Unlimited long-distance (within North America) for < $40 month is also commonly available.
It still boggles my mind that carriers (and consumers be they individual or business) put up with the draconian pay as you go -- model outside of US.
It still boggles my mind that carriers (and consumers be they individual or business) put up with the draconian pay as you go -- model outside of US.
Perhaps for lack of options?
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