Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Howard R. Hansen who wrote (26750)	10/6/2004 4:58:49 PM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

The wireless carriers want you to take pictures with their cell phones so you will use their service to tranmit the picture to your PC or to a printing service at a cost from 25 to 40 cents per picture. Hence if including a camera in a cell phone increases a wire carrier's revenue wireless carriers will subsidze the cost of a camera cell phone. But because you don't need to use a wireless carrier to transfer a picture to a PC if you have a removable memory slot wireless carriers will not subsidize the cost of a camera cell phone with a removable meory slot. Therefore with camera cell phones wth a removable merory slot having a premium price the camera cell phone flash memory market market will be a niche market. It is possible that the market could develop like this but I think it is unlikely....a couple of thoughts. - Thus far, carriers havent actually made much money with their MMS (photo/multimedia transfer) offerings. Most surveys show that while people are taking pictures they have yet to get in the habit of sending them. This may change as carriers get better at making these services more usable (particularly when sending across carriers) but the fact that they arent currently making money from these services has yet to stop them from subsidizing camera phones. The carrier business is intensively competitive and if one carrier stops subsidies, it just means that another carrier is going to get the business. - The best evidence that this is unlikely to happen is the fact that handsets like the Nokia 6230 (MMC) and the Motorola E398 (Transflash) have been been heavily subsidized since their launch. I just went to the Carphone Warehouse webpage (large UK mobile retailer) and on the front page they have an offer for the Nokia 6230 free on any UK network with a contract. carphonewarehouse.com My WAG would be that this handset has a $200+ wholesale price. Nokia has stated this handset potentially could be the largest selling mid-tier handset ever. I have a feeling that the features (MP3 player/MMC card/FM radio) are going to be extensively duplicated in Nokia's future offerings. Slacker

To: Howard R. Hansen who wrote (26750)	10/7/2004 1:08:36 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Howard, I don't think the handset manufacturers themselves care how the carriers wish to bill services. If they make a crappy phone or eliminate features...well...the public will decide one way or the other about the success of the phone launch. I can't see Verizon calling up Nokia and saying "remove the removable memory or we don't want any of your crappy phones" or anything of that sort. I don't think it costs the Nokia anything to add an empty mini-SD slot to the phone. I mean, it may cost 10¢ for the hardware a little piece of real estate in the phone design tucked in behind the battery or something. For all I know people will start synch'ing their phones to a PC and you won't even need to remove the memory card at all. I don't see it as a niche market. Not in the slightest. Aus