Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Taxes might cripple low-cost phone sales
"I anticipate that we'll hit $25 handsets by the end of next year," said Ben Soppitt, director strategic initiatives at the GSM Association
"Bangladesh has just introduced a $20 SIM card tax, and that's on top of $18 they were already charging and other tax," he said, adding Turkey had doubled a mobile phone tax.
There's always the interesting mind game to try to understand why new taxes are introduced. The only logic I've found is simply "We need to pull in more money. What haven't we already taxed?". No other logic works on a SIM card tax.
Distribution is also more expensive in emerging markets than in developed nations, said David Taylor, director of strategic operations for high-growth markets at Motorola.
High taxes stifle success of cheap mobile phones - Yahoo! News
"Bangladesh has just introduced a $20 SIM card tax, and that's on top of $18 they were already charging and other tax," he said, adding Turkey had doubled a mobile phone tax.
There's always the interesting mind game to try to understand why new taxes are introduced. The only logic I've found is simply "We need to pull in more money. What haven't we already taxed?". No other logic works on a SIM card tax.
Distribution is also more expensive in emerging markets than in developed nations, said David Taylor, director of strategic operations for high-growth markets at Motorola.
High taxes stifle success of cheap mobile phones - Yahoo! News
