US so far behind with Wireless

[Mayfriday0529]

How can that be! i mean i know its true but jeez we should keep up or stay ahead.

link to story

 

[NutBucket]

It boils down to a few things; people in this country aren't willing to pay for premium services or even premium handsets. They're happy with the free ones. That gives little incentive to offer premium handsets. Also, geographically the US is much larger then most Asian/European countries. That makes coverage harder to implement.

Personally I have no problem paying for a premium handset and premium services.

<-- Sprint subscriber.

 

[blakeatwork]

North America has generally lagged behind in the department..

Think of the land mass that has to be covered, when compared to something like Taiwan or Hong Kong..

 

[PoPPeR]

yeah, i mean doesn't all of Japan have ultra high speed internet connections for liek $10 a month since the amount of land that they cover is so freakin small? Kinda works the same with wireless coverage in that regards. I bought a new phone yesterday, and the $400 retail price is because of things like the video camera and ability to play TV on your phone, plus sprints walkie talkie thing, but I wont even use any of those for the most part (got it for free, otherwise wouldn't of paid for it). I dont think we're as geek-friendly yet as japan

 

[metalmania]

true, but US is the biggest ipod market.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: metalmania
true, but US is the biggest ipod market.

Which says nothing since there are better products for the money. The IPOD is perhaps the biggest marketing success in recent memory; cheap enough to be affordable to most yet expensive enough to rake in profit.

 

[JDub02]

Maybe us Americans realize there's more to life than talking on a phone.

 

[Phoenix86]

US - 9,629,091 sq km
Japan - 377,835 sq km

You can almost fit 2 Japans in Texas alone. The infrastructure is hard to install at the same pace as smaller denser land masses.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: PoPPeR
yeah, i mean doesn't all of Japan have ultra high speed internet connections for liek $10 a month since the amount of land that they cover is so freakin small? Kinda works the same with wireless coverage in that regards. I bought a new phone yesterday, and the $400 retail price is because of things like the video camera and ability to play TV on your phone, plus sprints walkie talkie thing, but I wont even use any of those for the most part (got it for free, otherwise wouldn't of paid for it). I dont think we're as geek-friendly yet as japan

the big cost on the internet connections is the last mile. last mile out to 1000 houses = really expensive; last mile out to a 1000 unit apartment tower = dirt cheap

 

[TitanDiddly]

I don't have a cell phone, and won't for a while.

 

[rahvin]

We also can affford homes and cars younger so we don't live at home with our parents until we are 35 with a huge disposable income that will be spent on silly gadgets. Personally I think the american ideal of spending the $$$ on real property intead of flaky gadgets is the better path, although the younger generation is forgoing that ideal.

 

[iamwiz82]

You would have ot be crazy to pay much more than $50 on a phone, IMHO. The one I want is -$200

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: metalmania
true, but US is the biggest ipod market.

Which says nothing since there are better products for the money. The IPOD is perhaps the biggest marketing success in recent memory; cheap enough to be affordable to most yet expensive enough to rake in profit.

IPODs do not require infrastructure. It's not a matter of cost of the device, it's cost of the service.

Sure the US can install 1000x as many towers in the same time, but no company is willing to hire hundreds of thousands of workers to get it setup at the same rate. And *you* may be willing to pay for that, but not enough people are, otherwise it would be profitable and would likely happen.

The cell market has always been a step behind Europe/Japan, and always will be because of this.

Heck, you can't even get cell service (normal), in 100% of the US. That's pretty unacceptable in Europe, but then again, look at the population density.

 

[Night201]

Our frequency band given to us by the FCC sucks as well. If they changed some things around and expired some old unused frequencies and such, we could get rid of many of the cell towers and stuff.

 

[PoPPeR]

Originally posted by: JDub02
Maybe us Americans realize there's more to life than talking on a phone.

yeah we spend our time eating instead

 

[TravisT]

I don't have a cell phone at all... don't need one.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: NutBucket
It boils down to a few things; people in this country aren't willing to pay for premium services or even premium handsets. They're happy with the free ones. That gives little incentive to offer premium handsets. Also, geographically the US is much larger then most Asian/European countries. That makes coverage harder to implement.

Personally I have no problem paying for a premium handset and premium services.

<-- Sprint subscriber.

HAHHAAHAHAH how the hell can you even say that with a straight face?
Sprint is the most Ghetto Cheap crappy service and handsets in the USA...
you dont even have GSM yet..

TMobile Cingular and ATT are the Only 3 pushing the good technology and thats usally over a year after the rest of the world has the phones and the services...

your little Sprint Toy phones cannot even come close to competeing with Nokia 6230s and Razor V6s
or any other High end phone...

Sprint high end hahahahaha..
my phone alone cost over 400 bucks US... and has more features and capabilites than most PDAs in the same price range..

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: CVSiN

Originally posted by: NutBucket
It boils down to a few things; people in this country aren't willing to pay for premium services or even premium handsets. They're happy with the free ones. That gives little incentive to offer premium handsets. Also, geographically the US is much larger then most Asian/European countries. That makes coverage harder to implement.

Personally I have no problem paying for a premium handset and premium services.

<-- Sprint subscriber.

HAHHAAHAHAH how the hell can you even say that with a straight face?
Sprint is the most Ghetto Cheap crappy service and handsets in the USA...
you dont even have GSM yet..

TMobile Cingular and ATT are the Only 3 pushing the good technology and thats usally over a year after the rest of the world has the phones and the services...

your little Sprint Toy phones cannot even come close to competeing with Nokia 6230s and Razor V6s
or any other High end phone...

Sprint high end hahahahaha..
my phone alone cost over 400 bucks US... and has more features and capabilites than most PDAs in the same price range..

I'm not trying to argue Sprint is the best or whatever. Its always worked well for me and I have much fewer problems then anyone else I know on other carriers. My current handset was $3xx as well. Big whoop. I pay for the premium services they offer and they work for me.

GSM is not the best technology. If you look they've always been behind in data service. It just happens to be the most universal. That's not to say CDMA is the best either; each has advantages and disadvantages.

I'm just offering my perspective and if you don't like it then fvck off:|

EDIT: Tell me, who offered the first color screen on a phone and the first camera phone?

 

[Queasy]

I've got my basic little Nokia phone that is so old I don't even remember the model number. I think its a 5100 or something. I just use it for phone use for emergencies and staying in touch with my wife. I just don't see the point in paying much dinero for a phone when all I need is basic phone use. I don't care to have the internet or a PDA or anything else right now. If I ever get into a position job-wise that I will need one, then I will. Just don't see the point in wasting money otherwise.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: NutBucket
EDIT: Tell me, who offered the first color screen on a phone and the first camera phone?

It was Sprint, and T-mobile was a couple of weeks behind. Whoopie-freaking-do.

I wouldn't brag about a single feature they got to the market by days before their competition. I certianly wouldn't flaunt Sprint as "high-end."

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86

Originally posted by: NutBucket
EDIT: Tell me, who offered the first color screen on a phone and the first camera phone?

It was Sprint, and T-mobile was a couple of weeks behind. Whoopie-freaking-do.

I wouldn't brag about a single feature they got to the market by days before their competition. I certianly wouldn't flaunt Sprint as "high-end."

The color phone was years ahead of the competition. At any rate, I'm just saying its not like Sprint lags years behind. That would be *cough* Verizon *cough*

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86

Originally posted by: NutBucket
EDIT: Tell me, who offered the first color screen on a phone and the first camera phone?

It was Sprint, and T-mobile was a couple of weeks behind. Whoopie-freaking-do.

I wouldn't brag about a single feature they got to the market by days before their competition. I certianly wouldn't flaunt Sprint as "high-end."

Actually it wasnt sprint either... you need to remeber what hits the states here is over a year behind in tech to the rest of the world..
I had a Nokia that was color WAY before they were availible in the states.. its called Import from Europe or japan..
and swap your chip into that handset..
same thing im fixen to do again now that my 6230 is in the US i need to be unique again.. time to import another rare phone from Japan..

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: CVSiN

Originally posted by: Phoenix86

Originally posted by: NutBucket
EDIT: Tell me, who offered the first color screen on a phone and the first camera phone?

It was Sprint, and T-mobile was a couple of weeks behind. Whoopie-freaking-do.

I wouldn't brag about a single feature they got to the market by days before their competition. I certianly wouldn't flaunt Sprint as "high-end."

Actually it wasnt sprint either... you need to remeber what hits the states here is over a year behind in tech to the rest of the world..
I had a Nokia that was color WAY before they were availible in the states.. its called Import from Europe or japan..
and swap your chip into that handset..
same thing im fixen to do again now that my 6230 is in the US i need to be unique again.. time to import another rare phone from Japan..

The average user doesn't import their own phones At any rate, I'd like to have some of handsets offered overseas as well. Too bad Sprint won't activate any of them. How about a 2MP phone with optical zoom?

 

[dc]

Originally posted by: PoPPeR
yeah, i mean doesn't all of Japan have ultra high speed internet connections for liek $10 a month since the amount of land that they cover is so freakin small? Kinda works the same with wireless coverage in that regards. I bought a new phone yesterday, and the $400 retail price is because of things like the video camera and ability to play TV on your phone, plus sprints walkie talkie thing, but I wont even use any of those for the most part (got it for free, otherwise wouldn't of paid for it). I dont think we're as geek-friendly yet as japan

you can get a 100mbit connection for 60-80 a month. not sure how much the new gigabit connections are.

 

[cHeeZeFacTory]

In general, the US lags behind in electronic devices, not just mobile phones.