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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM)
QCOM 174.18+1.1%3:59 PM EST
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To: Jim Mullens who wrote (143225)7/3/2006 6:03:07 PM
From: seti  Read Replies (1) of 152472
 

Interesting point. Therefore, with carrier phone subsidies, they feel its to their advantage to restrict the turn over of handsets. It also reduces churn when one cannot use his phone on another network. Handset mfgs benefit with SIM cards if they result in more sales from upgrades/ new services. However, with a SIM one would not need a new phone when switching carriers and thus reducing phone sales. SIM cards could therefore benefit QCOM by driving more handset / chipset sales.


Carriers do not give phone subsidies. They make "loans" at loan shark rates. In Hong Kong (admitedly a special case) I can buy a prepay SIM card for as little as $8 usd. It comes with $8 usd worth of airtime equal to 240 anytime minutes - no activation fee. Popping over the border to China, change the SIM card, and you can see everybody else doing the same at the crossing.

In the US, I wouldn't mind buying a new gee-whiz CDMA phone, but don't want to get into the morass of vendor lock-in, contract periods, activation fee, endless garbage. So I get a cheap phone without subsidy from virginmobile (sprint network).

One doesn't have to speculate about whether people will ugrade to newer phones. In asia, they change/upgrade very frequently. The US is a wireless third world country.
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