While more and more evidence has been surfacing around Facebook phone, it makes me wonder whether this would be the ultimate subsidized $0 phone that emerging India has been looking for. For starters, Indian users have to pay full hardware cost when they buy a device, unlike in the US where consumers can purchase a device subsidized by their telecom operators. US consumers can thus purchase a high end device for as little has $100. However, that has its downside too: telcos charge shit ton of monthly fees for this subsidized handsets.
Amazon CEO has previously mentioned that it wants to sell Kindle at subsidized rate as it expects to make money from after sales service. Google’s Nexus brand works on similar strategy. However that too requires users to spend money on content.
Facebook is in a unique position to provide users with high end handsets for $0 and making money from ads. This is what India is looking for. And this is probably what local brands like micromax Karbonn should fear.
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