Sim Cards

Jason,

In the USA, each major wireless telephone company has the phones
specifically for their company. If you want a sim card approach in the
US, you have to buy an 'unlocked' phone. These are much more expensive
than the other phones you would buy for the particular provider. A Treo
at Verizon costs about $300 if you want a locked Treo and it's at the
end or beginning of a contract period. If you want a locked Treo at
other times, it's just over $500. If you want an unlocked Treo, buy it
someplace else because Verizon won't sell it to you. It will cost about
$600. I think Verizon doesn't even allow you to use a sim card with an
unlocked phone on their service. However, some providers do.

In Europe all the phones have sim cards and you can pick your provider.
That's why there are a lot of us in the USA who think that the wireless
providers are ripping us off.

If you travel to Europe often enough, you ask the question, is it worth
it to pay the expense of getting a phone with a sim card and using a
provider here who allows it or do you just get a cheap phone when you
get off the plane in Europe and use that. It's all relatively cheap in
Europe. You would still have to buy a new sim card in Europe when you
got off the phone there.

Linda

-----Original Message-----
From: spiers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spiers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Jason Carrion
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 1:35 AM
To: spiers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [spiers] Re: New Product Idea

Jason,

I think it requires a large up-front commitment to revolutionize how
people view their cell phones... is this you? Money is NEVER the
problem in business.

John
Just read this... does anyone know if phones are designed
specifically for each network or if they are enterchangeble via sim
card?

I also have a older nokia (not so much feature creap) and I like it
because its simple with out the dang flip cover.

John - do you think that this would require a large upfront cost for
design? I remember reading in your book something about have a basic
design and then allowing the manufacturer to work out the finer
details - since they would be the pros.

Jason




--- In spiers@yahoogroups.com, "John Spiers" wrote:
>
> Folks,
>
> Unhappy with my cell phone, my wife brought home a non-flip phone,
but it has the same
> problems... it does too much.
>
> First it is barely workable for me (I had my 12 year old program
it). The screen is unreadable,
> but pretty with 216 million colors... in bright sunshine I cannot
even see the color, let alone the
> print. Just when my eyes focus on the tiny screen, the light turns
off to save battery. I can do text
> messaging, IM, and all sorts of other wonderful things, features I
will never use. I could go on,
> but I'll get to the point.
>
> I went into the Cingular store with the current phone and the last
phone I was happy with ... a
> model from say 5 years ago. It showed date and time, sent and
received phone calls. And an
> alarm clock. It was readable in any light, since it was black and
white screen... and the battery
> lasted a long time.
>
> So, I asked the gal to move the sim card from the new phone to the
old, and she said, sorry, the
> old phones didn't have sim cards, it could not be done. So I ran
down my complaints, and asked
> her what she had that would work for me, and she said what I had
was the best they could offer.
>
> She also went on to say, she gets FOUR PEOPLE A DAY with my exact
same complaint... her
> uncle is an engineer at Nokia and she is thinking about tipping him
off.
>
> Well, does anyone have any aspiration to the phone biz? Seems to
me if so, there is a product
> here... an extremely simple cel phone, yes digital, with a sim
card, but plain vanilla phone with
> NONE of the time wasting features that entice 12 year olds. Dont
worry about nokia, they will
> never make such a phone.
>
> My daughter inherited a record collection and asked for a record
player for Christmas. Best Buy
> had one with a built in radio, etc. $80... which I expect is very
profitable. Real simple, updated
> cheap technology... made by a no-name company. narrow demand, but
profitable.
>
> Who is going to make a simple, useful cel phone? One that you can
just move the sim card into
> and then throw away the one Cingular made you buy? I'll be your
first customer.
>
> John

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