The average life span of a cell phone, in America, is just under two years, and in countries like Asia, it’s about 3 months, or so says Jeremy Toeman, who took a few of the Apple boosters to task for their very bullish calls on Apple’s potential grip on the wireless space.
I commented on some of those bullish calls earlier, and frankly, I appreciate reading posts like that more than the “ga ga over iPhone posts I’ve been reading this weekend,” but Toeman reminded me of one of the main factors why Apple’s success in wireless space will probably be immaterial: “The Razr (aka the most successful cell phone of all time) moved 50M units in 4 years. And that’s been THE trendy phone to-date, and you can get them for next-to-nothing already.”
That last part rings loudly: ”Next-to-nothing” is not even the whole story, you can get a lot of phones for free. Sure, not the best ones, but I’m looking at a brochure (yes, they still print those) and the costs for Blackberry’s are a couple hundred dollars, and I’m looking at 5 nice models for $100.
In the end, I’m leaning towards a Blackberry Curve, which weighs in at about $350 with a 3-year plan. The Blackberry Pearl is $200 (with the same kind of contract).
I wonder of the 200M+ phones sold every year, how many are free or sold for next-to-nothing?
Those lineups outside Apple stores were long, impressive and great fodder for advertising folks. But those lines withered away pretty quickly, no?
Will Apple be a player in this market? No doubt about it. Will iPod’s success be duplicated in wireless?
One of the great things about the iPhone, allegedly, is the ability to surf the Web (albeit slowly on the current network). If that’s the case, you might want to note an important lesson learned online: you can’t beat free.
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