KPMG Says People Don't Want to Pay Extra for Features

[Raphael Salgado]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2006/03/news-flash-kpmg-discovers-world-is.html' target='_blank'>http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.c...s-world-is.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The accounting and consulting firm KPMG just announced it has discovered that most mobile phone customers aren't willing to pay anything extra for new features or services on their phones. In particular, only about 30% of users were willing to pay more than a 10% surcharge. The figures came from a survey of about 3,500 mobile phone users around the world."</i><br /><br />I can't say I'm surprised with these survey results. Many times we've been given a new technology, we were told that it would be cheaper or faster to manufacture and deploy than its predecessor, and therefore cheaper for us in the end. Many times, it's not the case. Has the DVD version of a movie ever been cheaper than its VHS counterpart? (And, guess which is easier to mass produce? :roll:) Is your cell phone plan cheaper than your landline plan? Pardon me (and many of these 3,500 users) for being cheap this time around, but after getting nickel-and-dimed for every little extra feature for every service they provide, it's no wonder few are still willing. Check out the blog for more details.

[duncanhbrown]

DVDs are a much better deal than videotapes; random access, better picture quality, and extras like commentaries, making-of, etc. And they're generally cheaper than music CDs, and are more compact than videotapes to boot.
I bought only 1 or 2 commercial videotapes in all the years I watched them; I've bought 30+ DVDs in the few years since I started watching them.
Duncan H. Brown

[Raphael Salgado]

But if we were told it's so much cheaper and faster to press a DVD, why are we paying $24.99 for it, when the VHS version which is obviously recorded in accelerated time, but nowhere near the time to press a disc, not to mention all the mechanical parts in manufacturing a videocasette, is $19.99?

I read an article from Cingular One before they became AT&amp;T Wireless that said it was so much cheaper and easier to set up towers than it was to lay underground cabling, yet our wireless plans still suck an average of $100 a month out of our wallets (not including all these ridiculous fees and surcharges that are passed on to us from the FCC and such). Don't forget about all the text messaging surcharges, which probably take up a mere fraction of a one-minute phone call.

We get new technologies all the time to make things faster to implement and easier to use, but the price never seems to reflect that. Chalk that up to pure greed.