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by steverb 4945 days ago
I think that the rise of Android is enabling carriers to push back a lot harder on the subsidies too. From their point of view, there's good demand across the board for Android phones and they can sell them with better profit, which would probably make them more inclined to negotiate harder with Apple.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the carriers threatens to skip the next iPhone release.
1 comments
Tloewald 4945 days ago
The carriers make way more money off iPhone customers so not likely. Also, in general, no-one switches carriers to get random android devices. They will leave carriers to get iPhones.

As android increases share of the phone market (vs. smartphone market, right?) the percentage of mobile web traffic from android has, if anything, dropped. This suggests android is winning big in the "I don't care what phone I get" market. This isn't the fat juicy part of the market.

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steverb 4945 days ago
They USED to make way more money. I don't know that that is still true, based on gripes from sales people about commissions I'm pretty sure it's no longer true. I do know that carriers are pushing Android (and even Windows) phones a lot harder than they were a year ago.
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Tloewald 4945 days ago
Sales people's commissions tend to be inversely related to customer demand. iPhone demand outstrips supply to incentivizing salespeople to sell iPhones makes no sense.

Think the numbers have dramatically changed since August? http://www.forbes.com/sites/ycharts/2012/08/10/can-anyone-he...

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steverb 4945 days ago
As far as I can tell, those charts don't break down the usage between iPhone and others. Doesn't matter though as your first point trumps it.

But good point about the reverse commissions arrow. I'll have to go check what current commissions are on the iPhones vs previously.

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Tloewald 4945 days ago
Agreed about the figures as they can only be inferred. asymco has done some analyses along these lines in the past but I couldn't find one in a hurry (and it might not have been recent). Other indirect measures do not show android is doing better as a "smart" phone (I.e. generator of demand for expensive cellular plans).
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