The article has the right idea -- operators are just bit pipes. Did they really think that they would be able to charge more to deliver a 160 character text message than it costs to mail a postcard forever?
I suspect they did... and they certainly got away with it for much longer than reasonable.
I'm quite excited by this development... it's another hint that the balance of power has shifted from carriers (who have every interest in keeping the services basic and expensive to maximise their profit margins) to the handset makers (who have every interest to build a handset with more cool stuff than other providers, but have been held back by the carriers for a decade).
I think we all know who to thank for this development... Thank you Mr Jobs!
> I think we all know who to thank for this development... Thank you Mr Jobs!
Maybe, but I've been using Skype on my Windows Mobile phone for longer than the iPhone has existed. I guess we can thank Mr Ballmer instead. (Eww, gross.)
While I'm excited by this in a sense, it's not that big a win for the end customer.
To really take advantage of this you need a decent/unlimited data plan. To get that (with most mainstream carriers) you need a voice plan. The cheapest voice plans are $40/mo and offer a boatload of minutes already.
So yeah, the carriers might miss out on charging some overage fees, but they are still going to charge their $70+ a month either way. This would be more exciting if you could get a 'naked' wireless data plan (like 'naked', or dry loop, or toneless DSL).
Of course, at least with skype chat you can stop paying an arm and a leg for text messages.
My 3gb/mo data plan is $8/mo and includes unlimited access to Starbucks WiFi. No voice component required.
No handset included, but no minimum subscription period either. $300 for a unlocked Nokia E71 from eBay still leaves you $1188 up on a 24 month $70 contract.
That's 1650 minutes a month on VOIP over WiFi or 3G, or 198 minutes a month even at out of bundle carrier rates if your VOIP service breaks, with the bonus that calls you don't make you don't pay for.
Wonder if the client is still P2P. If your phone becomes a supernode, imagine what's going to happen to the battery!
On the flip side this opens up a market for traffic shapers in the 3G world. DPI would be the only way you can block P2P VoIP. I forsee good times for DPI companies. :)
This is great news for people who live in places w/ bad signals and great wifi. I've been waiting a while for someone to do this. Hopefully they'll force apple / at&t to follow suit.
Actually they try to see the bigger picture in "connecting people". Phones are just their current platform of communication.
I'm seeing an approaching point of convergence to PC's with every new generation of phones and computers.
Current top-of-the-line multimedia phones and the newest pc-netbooks are quite different beasts than traditional GSM/CDMA cells and PCs.
Soon netbooks and phones might be one. At that point Skype/Twitter would make more sense than call on air/SMS.
See Nokia corporate history for evidence on planned abandonment.
