Comment Re: Custom phone (Score 1) 303
I'd certainly want a sexy piece of steel, 2/3 the size of my pda, with features from Star Trek, but you can't do that and still stay in business.
The cell phone biz' works because the customer gets a new phone every 18-24 months. If you offer the customer The Perfect Phone, s?he will stick to it a lot longer and the phone company will lose. That's one reason Nokia's businesse line Communicators are so much more expensive than they "should" be -- to compensate for lost revenue. Business users are holding on to those old bricks.
Sure, technology will evolve and eventually the happy customer with that Perfect Phone will find an upgraded model, but it's a huge difference for the company if the typical "renewal cycle" is 36 months rather than 24 months.
Volvo's biggest mistake -- business-wise -- was the Amazon. Most Amazons ever made (30+ years ago) are *still* in traffic (ok, so that might be an urban tale, but it still makes a good story ;)
- llauren
The cell phone biz' works because the customer gets a new phone every 18-24 months. If you offer the customer The Perfect Phone, s?he will stick to it a lot longer and the phone company will lose. That's one reason Nokia's businesse line Communicators are so much more expensive than they "should" be -- to compensate for lost revenue. Business users are holding on to those old bricks.
Sure, technology will evolve and eventually the happy customer with that Perfect Phone will find an upgraded model, but it's a huge difference for the company if the typical "renewal cycle" is 36 months rather than 24 months.
Volvo's biggest mistake -- business-wise -- was the Amazon. Most Amazons ever made (30+ years ago) are *still* in traffic (ok, so that might be an urban tale, but it still makes a good story
- llauren
