I work for a Wireless Company which almost all our SVPs, VPs and Directors are attending CTIA this week, however I just work in Marketing so I don't get to go, but never in the history of Wireless has a device (iPhone) changed the landscape so much. I love it, becuase I'm a huge Apple Fan and I was telling the VPs and Directors here about the iPhone long before it was launched that it would be a game changer not only in pushing wireless technology forward, but in the way the industry prices phones. In normal fashion they brushed it off as they normally do and focused only on new products coming from Motorola, Nokia, LG and Samsung. Here is why the iPhone will change the Wireless industry. If apple sells the iPhone for $499 and $599 it will be the only phone out there at is not subsidized (discounted). For example our company pays $249 for a Razr and we sell it to a customer for $39. The Motorola Q we pay $435 and turn about and sell it for $99. The most expensive Smartphone we sell is the Palm 700 which cost us $591 and then we turn around and sell it for $299. The Wireless Industry is about the only one that sells it's products to a customers for less then it paid for it. Now we do make it up in Monthly Service Charges 🙂 . However, people are used to paying next to nothing for these phones because they don't know how much they really cost. As Apple has said, people pay nothing because they are worth nothing. Amen to that! Some phone we carry are not worth $400 or even $200. So if we see Customers paying $500 and $600 for the iPhone you can bet that Motorola, LG, Nokia and Samsung are going to pissed. These companies hate that we Service Providers discount their phone so much, because it makes them look worthless and their products worthless. For one I can't wait to see how the Industry changes due to the iPhone.
