How Great Cheap Phones Never Get to the U.S.

prostoalex writes "Gary Krakow from MSNBC is impressed with Motorola's C116 phone only to find out that that the phone is not available in the US. The reason? 'A very, very basic GSM handset that handles incoming and outgoing calls as well as SMS messages, the C116 is sold all over the world -- except for the United States. It's not sold here because it's too cheap!' The phone is targeted for emerging markets, where people don't like to tie themselves into monthly contracts, and with little value proposition presents little interest to US wireless operators."

Comments

Is that the best phone in the world?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

If down is up and right is left, that is the best phone in the world. Or at least the best looking.

Ugly, ugly phone. Holy cow.

You want to know why nice phones don't come to the US? It's because people want to hang onto these things until the last circuit burns out and they can't hear the person on the other end because the flames shooting out of the earpiece are too hot. Then they try to extend the life on the phones by only making calls while holding their head in a tank of water. When the phone finally stops making calls, the pry the fuckers open and try to build a morse code/edgar allen poe tap tap tapping machine. When the battery decays and starts dripping acid all over everything, the phone owner grabs a blanket and uses the device to send smoke signals.

The rate of turnover in devices is not high enough to justify importing constantly updated models.

I wonder if /. is RUN by a tribe of cave trolls.

[the_REAL_sam]

Half the articles seem to be trolls in and of themselves.

Re:US needs to be more like Europe

[jrockway]

This is slashdot. Nobody here has 1000 friends :)

Re:US needs to be more like Europe

[mctk]

In fact, I do have 1000 friends!

...or was that base ten?

Re:Mobile phones in India

[dilvish_the_damned]

We can't afford the good ones. Its not the monopolies and regulations (or advertising to a sheepish public).
The basic mantra of commercialism is "charge what the market will bear" and the US consumer will bear what we are taught.
I blaim your cab driver. He is taking our jobs, ergo he has the better phone.
May I go just a little too far here?
I will regardless.
How dare you spread your anti-Commercialism here? Its down right unamerican.
The next thing you will be suggesting is that the US cannot put regional locks on devices/media so that corporations cannot control markets through technology and the DMCA.
But of course your a foreigner, I guess you can be excused by this basis alone. You just didnt understand.
We are sheep. And I guess we like it that way. Dare I say "Proud"?
And despite remours of a deficit we are all individually rich, and we are proud to support those US companies that provide for us. Did I say "proud"?.
Trust in the company.
Some day the rest of the world will learn to trust in thier companies and corps, just as we have. And then you wont have to think, just as we do (or dont).
So, did I go too far? I question if I went far enough. I doubt it. So I will go one further.
"We are the US, we are very powerfull, our prices prove it".
I guess I should have either denoted this rant as or stopped a few beers ago. But I am American, I know full well how to sedate myself.
And its too late, you already read it.

--dant

Over poetic review borders on pornography

[tod_miller]

"I couldn't wait to slip my SIM card inside and see what it could do. "

Filth! Nothing but poisonous fuel for a twisted mind.

+del.icio.us ++dugg ;-)