What is keeping users from really taking advantage of the handset's and the network's full potential? What is preventing mass adoption of handsets and related services? It is not the technology… It is not the users… It is not the developers… It is the cost of ownership!
For example, today I went to Cingular to buy a SIM card for my new test handsets (some of which I bought from Russ)… In any case, as you can see below, it is not cheap, and remember, from a developer's perspective it is even worst — imagine multiple subscriptions per carrier:
Table of Cingular's Services (Jan 2006)
| Service | Cost |
|---|---|
| Voice |
$40 for 450 minutes, $60 for 900 minutes, …, $100 for 2000 minutes, …, $200 for 6000 minutes. |
| Access to the web (data plan) |
$20 for unlimited, $15 for 10MB, $10 for 5MB, $5 for 1MB. Pay per use is 1 cent per kilobyte. Unlimited is the way to go. |
| SMS messages |
$10 for 1000 message, $20 for 2000 messages, with 3-10 cents per extra message, with 20 cents if international. Pay per use is 10 cents per message. Cingular doesn't offer unlimited text messaging. |
| MMS messages |
$5 for 40 messages, with 20-25 cents per extra message. Pay per use is 25 cents per message. Cingular doesn't offer unlimited MMS messaging. |
| Ringtones | $2.49 each. |
| Games/Tools | $10 each. |
| Click here to see a scan of the Cingular MEdia services fees brochure. | |
We are talking of a minimum of $70, before tax, per month, to have a cellphone with basic voice service, that can be used to surf the web (unlimited), and that can send and receive 1000 text messages — that doesn't include MMS, ringtones or applications.
When I ask people how much extra they are willing to pay a month for extra services for their cellphones, the typical answer is around $20. This is why voice, followed by text messaging are the top two usages of cellphones. This is why data plans and thus access to the web comes next, but far behind voice and text messaging. And this is the same reason why mass adoption of MMS won't happen any time soon — it is too expensive. Consumption of individual items, such as ringtones and applications and songs, will continue to happen, as such consumption is occasional. All this is consistent with
M:Metrics recent data.
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