Amazon and Google are undermining mobile pricing, and that may hurt everyone

[trixstar]

What do you guys think about this??

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/03/e...obile-pricing/

I think it is absolutely bs, but then again, who knows what can happen?

[13sundin]

there will always be apple... they will develop something and the other companies will rename it and market it as their own.

[aeobikes]

What engadget is proposing, is forming a cartel, to keep prices artificially high.
DRAM makers have been busted on that a few times already.


And I don't think engadget understands how the free market works. How do you outsell your opponents? You sell equal or higher quality products cheaper, or you sell inferior products so cheaply, that even 3 replacements wouldn't add up to the cost of one good product. That's why a lot of manufacturing jobs in america were moved offshore to places with cheaper labour.



Or, knowing how much of a raging hardon engadget has for apple devices, maybe they are complaining that android will finally take more than 50% of the tablet market share or that iphone will bottom out to 10% market share in handsets. I mean, just looking at the rather unimpressive specs for the recent i devices, maybe they are worried google will actually damage apple to insolvency. "Oh noes! Apple will have to cut into its huge margins to compete with google and amazon! What will become of my apple shares!?". Well, tough luck. The market constantly changes, and if you don't adapt your company, then you become a dinosaur that will go extinct. But not to worry, because there's always someone out there who will try and fill the void. This time, it's possibly microsoft.

[FormerSlacker]

That's probably the dumbest article I've ever read in my life, either that or just a blatant PR piece for high margin tech companies.

High quality, low cost devices actually hurt the consumer, who knew!

[HandsomeRob]

If that were even a hair true, Kindle Fire & Nexus 7 would have eaten the entire tablet market by now.

[Blackmajik]

I guess the saying is true - you have to spend money to make money. With so many players coming to the market now, they have to attract customers and look at their direction instead of their competitors'. One way of doing so is pricing which will lead to more people buying their products and hopefully enjoy and spread it by word of mouth. Who knows what will happen in the future but for now, I am actually enjoying the fact that newer devices are becoming cheaper and an industry full of competitors who are willing to battle it out for your money.

[arclite]

I find this very reminiscent of the case where Intel got busted for selling their processors below cost or with heavy discount and offering rebates in order to shut out the competition. In addition to that they were busted for bribing companies to use their processors over AMD. I can understand bribing or paying companies to use their products as anti-competitive, but can it be seen as anti-competitive if you price your products lower than the competitions??? Google can afford to sell their products at a loss, smaller companies...not so much.

[Nigel]

there will always be apple... they will develop something and the other companies will rename it and market it as their own.

LOL HILARIOUS!!! What has apple ever developed?

[supersaiyan]

there will always be apple... they will develop something and the other companies will rename it and market it as their own.

Yup keep believing that

[desidealer49]

Just like cheapo civics, corollas, kias, elantras, foci have forced Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari, jaguar, Audi, Lamborghini to go into bankruptcy.

Right?

[caRpetbomBer]

there will always be apple... they will develop something and the other companies will rename it and market it as their own.

You have it all wrong its the other way around.

[ceredon]

So no one here in familiar with the concept of dumping and how it can kill an industry?

Android vendors, aside from Samsung, were already bleeding out. Loss leader pricing is going to accelerate the race to the bottom that was already well under way.

[ceredon]

Just like cheapo civics, corollas, kias, elantras, foci have forced Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari, jaguar, Audi, Lamborghini to go into bankruptcy.

Right?

If Honda, Toyota and Kia started selling at or below cost, you would see the rest implode and those doing it would find they cannot sustain it forever.

[Piro21]

What Amazon and Google have been doing is what should be done, Google especially with the Nexus 4's pricing and sales model. Just look at how well the wireless carriers in this country have trained customers to accept terrible, money-sucking plans because they're getting a pittance of a hardware subsidy. There is no reason for phones to cost more now than what a compact digicam did a years ago, and if more customers are willing to just buy the product up front for it's full price and demand a reasonably-priced plan things will improve for everyone.

I can't believe this author went on record to make the "Think of poor Apple! They might have to lower their profit margins! Look what you monsters have done with your expectations!" point.

[Nigel]

Maybe the nexus 4 is cheaper cause it only has a 4.7” True HD IPS screen vs the very expensive to produce Super HD amoled screen on the S3?

Edit: it seems that IPS is a nicer screen overall with richer colors but what about price and battery life?