Jozef - regarding explaining how rational consumers will steer away from non-CDMA wireless (because of pricing) -- (and this is also directed at Tero) -- this is just the real-world confirmation of what we have been told (repeatedly) by Irwin Jacobs (and everyone else at Qualcomm) about CDMA having a roughly 3.7 fold advantage over GSM and TDMA with respect to how much capacity of wireless phone calls can be carried simultaneously on a wireless system.
If AT&T is offering something on their non-CDMA based system that is comparable in price to what Sprint PCS is offering, I absolutely assume that AT&T is losing money on this. And it is yet another in a long line of unbelievable AT&T strategic decisions that is wrong, wrong, wrong; and will probably be studied in a business school case study at some point in the future.
It seems to me that if one is trying to figure out WHO are Qualcomm's customers, it is not me (because I bought a QCP-2700), or my friend at the bank (who got a Samsung CDMA handset), it is companies like Sprint, Bell Atlantic, etc., who decided many years ago "let's check out the economics of spending $1 Billion (or whatever it is) on a wireless system. Should we choose A, or B (which has 3.7 times the capacity, for the same investment)?"
Tero's quotes on people saying "I love my GSM handset" seem (to me) analogous to the following:
A custom shirtmaker, who uses only the finest cotton, and the finest tailors, sets up shop next to a Sears store in a mall, and says "Sears will sell you a polyester dress shirt for $18. We will sell you a custom-made cotton shirt for $18 !"
If they did this, I am sure one could find lots of rave reviews from customers of the custom shirt maker. But their business would be un-economic, and would lose out to Sears.
Why are we (everyone on this thread except Tero) supposed to care that someone likes their non-CDMA handset? Those people do not place the next $1 Billion infrastructure order.
When Tero says "but you have to have consumers who like the service, and will buy the handsets" -- well, there is ZERO indication that this is even an issue with CDMA.
Jon. |
