From the April 2009 issue of Rutberg & Co.’s Wireless Industry Newsletter:
An under-discussed dynamic with the iPhone has been the impact to carrier subsidy budgets for non-iPhone handsets. In our conversations with handset OEM and carrier executives, we hear that subsidy budgets for those carriers carrying the iPhone are now disproportionately allocated to the iPhone. Furthermore, OEMs continue to face the hurdle and opportunity to match the experience and capabilities of the iPhone. As a result, as stated to us by a North American industry executive recently, “OEMs are being asked to do a lot more with a lot less.” An executive in Europe, where subsidies are less widely used, similarly stated, “a battlefront for OEMs is where carriers are going to place their subsidy budgets, after the iPhone.”
Who said you need to sell billions of phones to influence the industry? You just need to make billions of dollars for yourself and your friends. (Also: 5 Ways iPhone Will Change the Wireless biz; The iPhone Will Not Destroy the Wireless Business.)
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