... or alternatively entrench the pricing power of the big carriers by freezing-out upstarts.
If you can only activate your SIM with A, B or C they can present a 'price war' face whilst monopolising the market.
Why would A undercut B by anything more than pennies in such a captive market?
We see this in the UK with the Big Three ISPs offering increasingly silly incentives like supermarket shopping vouchers to poach customers from one another, but not actually growing their shared subscriber base or offering better products.
But you can still take out that SIM and put in one you got from your provider (or bought as a prepaid card in one of a zillion of places), can you?
If not, how does Apple plan to sell these phones in Europe?
I knew the USA was bad in this respect years ago, but from this thread, I get the impression that the USA _still_ lives in the middle ages, as far as mobile phone subscriptions go.
If you can only activate your SIM with A, B or C they can present a 'price war' face whilst monopolising the market.
Why would A undercut B by anything more than pennies in such a captive market?
We see this in the UK with the Big Three ISPs offering increasingly silly incentives like supermarket shopping vouchers to poach customers from one another, but not actually growing their shared subscriber base or offering better products.