After the announcement of the new iPhone 3G S, the previous iPhone 3G handset's price has dropped from 199.99 dollars to $99.99, which might have a serious effect on American network operators and handset manufacturers, according to Roger Entner, market researcher at Nielsen's Telecom Practice. He also told that Apple's previous phone has now become a direct rival of all handsets being sold at a price greater than 49 USD, even in spite of the high monthly fee, so rival networks and manufacturers need to find a new strategy if they want to remain competitive.
Hirdetés
According to Entner, the price of the handsets will surely drop later this yera, which will be compensated in part by the price support from the networks, but manufacturers are also expected to have a hard time, as the networks will be trying to cover their losses through their suppliers, so the profit of both networks and manufacturers could seriously decrease. The researcher also said that it is possible that the networks will increase their monthly fees, as AT&T's monthly fee for an iPhone package is about 70 dollars, but Verizon offers unlimited talk and messaging to all networks and unlimited data transfer for $99/month, which maximized the monthly fees, so this can be followed only by the decrease of profit.
The "iPhone-effect", however, won't last forever, as the exclusive sale rights of the networks will soon expire and then others can also start selling Apple's handset. Besides these we shouldn't forget that the new iPhone 3G S is no leader in hardware any more, as it has a much weaker display and camera than the rivals' phones and others have also started creating similarly comfortable user interfaces. We should just note the fully integrated solution of webOS, or Samsung's and LG's latest fully 3D UI, which have brought something new both in terms of customizability and eye-candy as well.
Translated by Szaszati
