What is Digg?71 Comments
- inactive, on 08/04/2008, -2/+22We probably should have seen this coming. Do you know anyone who doesn't have a cell phone now? (Besides your Grandma)
- ironeus, on 08/04/2008, -0/+18Mathematically it's bound to flatten out a bit which naturally leads to new and innovative products.
- DreKor, on 08/04/2008, -0/+13The title is quite literal. The category of "mobile phones" apparently doesn't include PDAs and Smart Phones. As dumb-phones are replaced by more feature rich handsets and as mobile computing increases (via 3 and 4g data cards), the mobile market should, overall, increase.
- AmyVernon, on 08/04/2008, -2/+15FU, my grandma has four cell phones.
- inactive, on 08/04/2008, -0/+12The mobile phone market has been artificially inflated beyond it's real market value for years, it only makes sense that it would eventually fall. When my cellphone starts costing the same amount as a laptop, you know something is wrong.
- inactive, on 08/04/2008, -0/+9hey, even my grandma has nokia 8800)))
- NewSearchEngine, on 08/04/2008, -2/+11How about the iPhone, no slow down?
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -3/+12No fanboy, it's just a ***** mobile phone. Virtually every other modern cell phone can browse the web and play mp3s too. Stop drooling just because it has an Apple logo on it.
- sockpuppets, on 08/04/2008, -0/+9Send the video professor her way.
- Cubedude04, on 08/05/2008, -2/+9I still don't have a cell phone.
- inactive, on 08/04/2008, -0/+7hehe, my grandmother hasn't mastered the CD-Rom yet.
- lambosv21, on 08/05/2008, -0/+6must suck to be the guy calculating the compound annual growth rate, for portable battery powered products, for a living.
- sockpuppets, on 08/04/2008, -0/+6schrodingerly it may or may not flatten out.
- duggdowncatisad, on 08/05/2008, -0/+5It's also a gameboy, a remote control, a camera, a paperweight, a mirror, a brick, a flashlight, and a vibrator.
- nuentendu, on 08/04/2008, -1/+6"What now? Oh sorry I wasn't talking to you, I'm on my Bluetooth headset."
- afruff23, on 08/05/2008, -0/+5Steve Jobs?
- Dylson, on 08/05/2008, -0/+5Get a life sir. Get a life.
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -4/+9Fail.
- McBradd, on 08/05/2008, -0/+5Cell Phones killed my mother. And RAPED my father!!!
- Cubedude04, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4@pyrophire
Not at all. I've had this name since 2004 and I've long stopped playing console games in favour of PC games. - d03boy, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4It's the contractual obligation that sucks, not the price.
- DeFex, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3an iphone?
- freediverx, on 08/05/2008, -2/+5It's not the cellphones that are ridiculously overpriced, but the service.
- louiebaur, on 08/04/2008, -2/+5My grandma carries and around brick and she will use it to!
- GOVATENT, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3don't you mean RAPPED?
if you don't know its a reference to another digg - chokeaduck, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3Americans are spoiled by *FREE PHONES*. You know how much Europeans pay for a basic phone? Hundreds of dollars. That ETF is subsidizing the phone. No one likes contracts, but if you want the *FREE PHONE* so you pay it off a little bit month by month. Don't get me wrong, I agree fully with you, I'd pay full retail for a phone if that meant I could jump between carriers at a whim. This would also ramp up the quality of service, because without dangling the ETF in your face for leaving them, they'd be begging you to stay, as you aren't guaranteed revenue. We'll just have to see if Americans can see past the *FREE PHONE*. I think it will take years, they are spoiled/brainwashed by this point.
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3The mobile phone cos keep screwing their customers. At least here in the states they do. $175 to disconnect a line you no longer use when it takes them about 1 minute of manpower to do it. Excessive charges for tax payer subsidised broadband access. Poor customer service. Excessive delays in credit for returned defective products. It's just rediculous. I hear Europeans have excellent service, support and pricing, is this true?
- psyphen, on 08/05/2008, -1/+4In 2012, the iPhone will become self-aware.
- TokenBlack, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3@mojoe
"Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!" - copypastry, on 08/05/2008, -0/+2Agreed, it's a shift from dumbphone space to convergence device space.
- DreKor, on 08/05/2008, -0/+2I meant quite the opposite. Smartphone and PDA prices are coming down, so people are choosing to upgrade to a device with more features. For the purposes of this article, that takes them out of the mobile phone market and makes that market shrink. However, the overall number of cellular devices hasn't gone down. For example, the mobile carrier I work for has more than tripled the number of email capable devices it carries in the past 18 months. However, we're still offering the same number of handsets.
I agree that developing nations are going to contribute huge numbers to the mobile market. But many manufacturers are targeting these areas with messaging centric devices with what, at least in America, would be considered middle to top-tier features. They're creating these as an alternative to full-fledged computers for email and IM. Plus, they get some cool ruggedization features. I'm not sure if the author would have considered these as mobile phones or as one of his "convergence" devices. - mogebier, on 08/05/2008, -2/+4And??
This is like saying the housing market is over-inflated. Or that the sky is blue.
Why is this a story? - afruff23, on 08/05/2008, -0/+2@duggdowncatisad
You forgot "sideburns". - jo21, on 08/05/2008, -0/+2led by nokia you mean
nokia owns 50% of the smartphone marketshare.
symbian have 70% of the global smartphone market (now owned by nokia)
and nokia sells 80-100 millions smartphones each year! - leerayIG88, on 08/04/2008, -0/+2a brick? she should carry a gun.
- thedude42, on 08/05/2008, -0/+2So, the article says that it's the combining of functionality that reduces the total income in this market.... but doesn't the combining of these functions also reduce the total overhead of the cost to produce them? For that matter, doesn't added functionality give rise to other markets (ie, software development) to pick up the added capital consumers have to spend since they are only buying one do-it-all device instead of 2 or 3 discrete devices?
... so like, buried for not really telling us anything worth thinking about? Yeah, that's it. - jobobshishkabob, on 08/05/2008, -1/+3First of all, the article is not referring to the iphone specifically. Second, can people stop bitching about the iphones cost of ownership? It is the same (if not cheaper) than every remotely comparable smart phone.
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -0/+2molecularly this is the only plausible scenario
- pyrophire, on 08/05/2008, -1/+3Based on your name, you are still playing GameCube. You sir, need to upgrade and get with the times.
- borez, on 08/05/2008, -1/+2Daily polymer industry news brought to you by European Plastics News and Plastics & Rubber Weekly magazines.
Woohoo... we're really onto something now.
/saracasm ( hate this tag, but find it necessary ) - TheDarkstarter, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1What is this 'blue' sky that you speak of?
- TheHappyToaster, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1Actually, Sprint and AT&T do have options for setting up a phone you already own in a non-contract situation. It's not something that's commonly done, since the company much prefers having the assured income of a contract, but it is possible for a corporate store or customer service to set that up.
Beyond that, prepaid phones are starting to offer pricing comparable (and occasionally better than) contract-based phones.
There are better solutions, but finding them can be a bit of a pain. - DreKor, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1In 2013, Apple will release firmware 3.0, rendering the iSkyNet hack inoperable.
- HappyScrappy, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1You're saying that because these smart phones cost more the market should grow in size?
I do agree that some people will buy more expensive devices. But I think a shrink in the market due to saturation and economic slowdown will have a bigger effect in the short term.
One thing to remember is how many cell phones are sold in developing countries where they don't even buy what we think of as an average feature phone (the industry name for what you call a dumb phone), they are buying much cheaper handsets because they can only afford basic service. - regeya, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1You mean...infinite growth isn't possible? *****!
- regeya, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1Cocaine will make your heart explode.
- regeya, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1You won't care, because something infinitely better will be around. Seriously, how many people give a rip about Doom running on a cellphone?
- BotchaMcCoola, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1No, he and a few Hawks are to blame for wasting our prosperity. Look around a little.
- inactive, on 08/06/2008, -0/+1I iz marketer 4 applez?
-
Show 51 - 71 of 71 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is