meteor have s*** phones

towel401

or at least thats what I caught somebody googling for in the logs of my webserver. while I agree that meteor phones tend to be the cheaper ones and they stock very few high end models in the shops I don't see the point in complaining about it when you can just buy a phone online. I will never again buy a locked phone because I hate the crippled firmware, waiting/paying to have it unlocked and the phones I want are usually not out "on" meteor.

Unlocked/SIM free phones are hugely overpriced in shops. Over in england you can buy a LG KU970 for £95 - but it is just a locked phone with no sim. after spending £30 on credit you are supposed to be able to get it unlocked, but it will still be branded. The phone sells for about £130 on ebay (new and unlocked) but if you want one in a phone shop they charge £260! It appears that the phone shops overprice on purpose to encourage people to get a locked phone, and possibly get a "kick back" from the network its locked to.

The much hated iPhone seems to be an attempt to usher network-exclusive phones into the mainstream over here. In america when you ask someone what phone they have they say verizon or cingular or something and they all buy the phone from that network. its not a good thing when people are cajoled into putting up with a substandard/expensive network because of the phone they want to use but obviously the networks think it's a great way of doing business.

copacetic

is there a point to the above at all?

mikemac

towel401 wrote: »

Unlocked/SIM free phones are hugely overpriced in shops. Over in england you can buy a LG KU970 for £95 - but it is just a locked phone with no sim. after spending £30 on credit you are supposed to be able to get it unlocked, but it will still be branded. The phone sells for about £130 on ebay (new and unlocked) but if you want one in a phone shop they charge £260! It appears that the phone shops overprice on purpose to encourage people to get a locked phone, and possibly get a "kick back" from the network its locked to.

You could look at that from the other point of view if you're not as cynical.
The networks subsidise the phone heavily (very heavily!) in an attempt to get you to join their network and they hope you will stay with them.
Common student ploy in the past was to buy a Vodafone PAYG phone for €59, use the €40 credit and then sell the phone and go again.
It's the customer who is ripping off the network in that case. Well, not ripping off but the customer is winning big time!

Anyway as you posted, Meteor concentrate on the lower end of the market and it's worked very well for them. So I doubt they'll change their business plan as there is no need to

towel401

micmclo wrote: »

You could look at that from the other point of view if you're not as cynical.
The networks subsidise the phone heavily (very heavily!) in an attempt to get you to join their network and they hope you will stay with them.
Common student ploy in the past was to buy a Vodafone PAYG phone for €59, use the €40 credit and then sell the phone and go again.
It's the customer who is ripping off the network in that case. Well, not ripping off but the customer is winning big time!

Anyway as you posted, Meteor concentrate on the lower end of the market and it's worked very well for them. So I doubt they'll change their business plan as there is no need to

yup, i even done that myself in the past. the phone wasn't even locked or branded. but those days are over for the most part. now there is a trend for having the credit added on every month when you top up and the phones are loaded with wubbish and permanent links in the firmware to their overpriced ringtone WAP site. you can flash em, but thats a bit of a dose

vodafone have a whole department dedicated to making sure this sort of stuff doesn't happen. i'm not being paranoid but i know that it is actually true. they still give you a good bit of credit, but they spread it out over a few months now

eamon234

towel401 wrote: »

It appears that the phone shops overprice on purpose to encourage people to get a locked phone, and possibly get a "kick back" from the network its locked to.

Last time I looked most of the mobile phone stores in this country were owned by networks (with the exception of Carphone Warehouse and Eircom's 3G stores and the odd smalltown shop selling a few phones a week)

Sim free phones sold by stores like Carphone Warehouse are bought direct from suppliers not from the networks and if you check sites like Expansys with their UK equivalent or Pixmania you'll see there isn't a huge difference in the price of sim-free phones.

Networks lock phones because they are subsidising the cost of the phone when you buy it in the hope that they will recoup some of this money over the length of your contract / pay as you go term

Rory B

Meteor's range of handsets aren't fantastic because they're not currently a 3G Network, Vodafone & O2 have 3G coverage since 2005 & 06 respectively and can offer high end handsets that are compatible with there network, whilst on Meteor's behalf, it would not be fair to sell a handset that there network cannot provide services for, Meteor are now in part 2 of there trial on the 3G network and will launch very soon when coverage has reached its required amount of population coverage, there currently offering the Nokia E65 & N73 at present with a wider range to follow!

Burago

They have the Sony Ericsson listed in the current gift guide but not on their site. That's defintely a high end phone so I hope it being in their mag isn't a printing error.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Aquos76

The W580i and also the k550i exclusive to the CPW

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Aquos76

Solitaryman666 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Never said the were, was only mentioning meteor's newest SE phones

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Aquos76

that more than likely is the one, but at that price they can keep it.

chrislad

It's the K850i, which is over 500euro sim free.

That's the thing with Irish mobile phone users. They moan and whine about wanting the best phones but aren't willing to pay for them.