Bad News For US Acer Fans

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.gearlog.com/2009/05/acer_no_us_smartphones_till_20.php' target='_blank'>http://www.gearlog.com/2009/05/acer...nes_till_20.php</a><br /><br /></div><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/ppct/auto/1241781717.usr14226.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Remember those <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/93508/acer-s-eight.html" target="_blank">eight models Acer launched</a> in Singapore a couple of weeks back? Gearlog reports that Acer's plan for moving these into the US market is being held up by carrier certification. By the time they get in, Acer's models are going to have lots of competition - Acer loses, consumers lose. Is it just me or is the phone business model in the US broken?</p>

[whydidnt]

Is it just me or is the phone business model in the US broken?

You are correct, sir.

The US carriers and their lock-in subsidies have a stranglehold on the market. I'd go so far as to say that it goes beyond just agreeing to carry a certain handset. My guess is there are implied threats to the manufacturers that if they offer unlocked devices here, they may have a difficult time getting future devices "approved" on the network. AT&T wants to protect it's iPhone goldmine at any cost.

It wouldn't be so bad if the carriers would at least carry the top of line devices so those of us that want a big hi-res sceen could get one, but they seem determined to aim most of their efforts to the low-middle end of the market.

I'm hoping that, at least in Acer's case we may be able to get one of these from an importer later this year, but I'm not holding my breath.

[j2inet]

It wouldn't be so bad if the carriers would at least carry the top of line devices so those of us that want a big hi-res sceen could get one, but they seem determined to aim most of their efforts to the low-middle end of the market.

It's a sales driven business. The low and middle priced devices are going to produce the most revenue. While I find the result less than desirable I also have to recognize that the phone carrier's interest are nto necessarily my interest .

[whydidnt]

It's a sales driven business. The low and middle priced devices are going to produce the most revenue. While I find the result less than desirable I also have to recognize that the phone carrier's interest are nto necessarily my interest .

So are we to say that in Europe and Asia, those carriers aren't in sales driven business and are willing to carry higher end devices at a loss?

I don't argue that the carriers think that the low-mid priced devices are their sweet spot. However, the fact that we can't get even 1 true high-end WM device on our shores speaks to a bigger issue. If we had TRUE competition in the mobile phone market, one or more carriers would care about attracting the high-end market and would be offering these devices to attract that market. Since we have nothing more than a government granted monopoly today, that doesn't happen.

[Fritzly]

The problem is that in this market, as well as many others like TV and internet connections, we have fallen behind the rest of the industrialized nations because everything is left in the hands of greedy, short sighted companies.... quite often managed by incompetent.
I am old enough to remember when Hollywood was crying that the VCR would kill the movie industry; now it is its first source of revenues for those idiots.

My brother in Europe pay 1/3 of what I pay here for DSL and the speed is 35 MB, he has no cap and for something like $10/15 more per month he also has IPTV in all its beauty.
Here I am locked with a crappy cable company, just one of course because they are not to compete among them.
Have you ever wondered why all those representatives we send to Washington never investigated if a situation like this coul be considered an oligopoly? Becaue of the money these companies pour to the campaigns and lobbysts etc.

[Phillip Dyson]

As a US consumer I've been in limbo for about 4 months now. Should I buy now? Or later.

The only devices that have stated that they will get a 6.5 upgrade are the HTC Touch Pro2 and Diamond2. And who knows when they will be available in the US. Perhaps one will be for verizon and the other T-Mobile. both leaving me (ATT) out in the cold.

For the past 4 months my Touch Dual has been suffering from spontaneous lockups and shutdowns. And I mean like several times a day.

Plus I really miss Wifi and GPS. Oh, and a bigger, better screen.

The way things are going, there wont be any "next generation" phones available until 2010. Thats 7 months!

[SteveHoward999]

everything is left in the hands of greedy, short sighted companies.... quite often managed by incompetent.

As a Brit now living in the USA, all I can say is "Don't start me!". The cell phone industry (and most others) in the USA is driven by corporate greed first and foremost. Customer satisfaction is way low on the list.

One of the things that stunned me when I moved here was to learn that a 'typical' warranty on devices is 90 days. With many you are lucky if they actually survice a full year of use. Apparently US companys actually do happily build in a certain level of defect that is not tolerated in Europe - nor is a mere 90 day warranty even legal ...

Like I said - don't start me!

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

I'm going to repeat what I normally say...

There's always a lot of whining from the Americans about not getting a high end device (or a neutered one), but when an unlocked full-featured version comes out almost everyone whines how expensive it is. Most in the US have been way sheltered by the ACTUAL prices of PDA Phones in the market for too long. Change is hard to effect when everyone is unwilling to break from the status quo.

[Phillip Dyson]

I'm going to repeat what I normally say...

There's always a lot of whining from the Americans about not getting a high end device (or a neutered one), but when an unlocked full-featured version comes out almost everyone whines how expensive it is. Most in the US have been way sheltered by the ACTUAL prices of PDA Phones in the market for too long. Change is hard to effect when everyone is unwilling to break from the status quo.

This may be true for many, but I can tell you that all of my WM Pro devices have been unlocked and I've paid as high as $700 for a phone. My last non-phone PDA (Toshiba e830) was imported from Canada.

What irritates me is the fact that now its not an issue of being willing to pay the price. Now the manufacturers are leaving out radios.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

So are we to say that in Europe and Asia, those carriers aren't in sales driven business and are willing to carry higher end devices at a loss?


I much prefer the system we have here in Malaysia - the carriers have little or anything to do with selling or servicing phones themselves (with the notable exception of the iPhone). Since everything is on GSM, that means carriers have to compete on service and/or price. The flipside is having to pay full retail on phones, but a thriving second hand market and fierce competition between hardware manufacturers means prices tend to fall pretty fast in that area as well.

[k1darkknight]

I much prefer the system we have here in Malaysia - the carriers have little or anything to do with selling or servicing phones themselves (with the notable exception of the iPhone). Since everything is on GSM, that means carriers have to compete on service and/or price. The flipside is having to pay full retail on phones, but a thriving second hand market and fierce competition between hardware manufacturers means prices tend to fall pretty fast in that area as well.
Wow! That sounds like a more American business model than...oh, wait... than here in America. Hmm...what's wrong with THIS picture?

Don't get me wrong. It's great for Malaysia.
[rant] I'm just saying it's crazy that so many other parts of the world are shifting to a free market economy, while in the US, it's like we're running from the same, as fast as we can! [/rant sorry]