CPW don't sell sim-free phones?

towel401

Whats going on with these lads? back in the day *every* phone they had sim free. Now most of them are only available locked to some network. some not even prepaid? is this a new wave of proprietary 'by the network, for the network' phones? its not like you cant buy them elsewhere just wish there was a decent shop in ireland to buy unlocked phones

Sam Vimes

They make very little profit on sim free phones. They can sell a contract phone at the sim free price but they don't like to

Our man in Havana

They probably can't sell them due to their agreements with certain networks.

Tom Dunne

Most likely due to commission and selling insurance, I would say.

Probably no money and lots of hassle in selling SIM free phones. Who would a user turn to if there was a problem? The network wouldn't support them, so the buck would probably stop with CPW.

Davy

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Most likely due to commission and selling insurance, I would say.

Probably no money and lots of hassle in selling SIM free phones. Who would a user turn to if there was a problem? The network wouldn't support them, so the buck would probably stop with CPW.

CPW sell their own type insurance, its not network connected. That would suit sim free buyers as they wouldn't be purchasing networks policy's.

And if you buy a phone in a shop network locked or simfree thats where you bring it back to. I would say its only because the % cut of selling a networks phone easier money, when most people would be buying a network phone

Rsaeire

Networks are becoming more powerful in their strategies and business deals, so I would imagine CPW are looking at the bottom line. If the network exclusive handset offers that tie users into 18-24 month contracts are anything to go by, times are looking very bad for the consumer; not to mention the exorbitant tariff prices users are forced to live with.

Another point is that handsets are evolving at an alarming rate with cutting edge technology being made smaller and smaller to accommodate the diminishing dimensions of current and future handsets. It's not surprising that handsets in general don't have a long life-span, considering that handsets are produced and rushed to the market before they're actually ready, e.g. Sony Ericsson K850i, Blackberry Storm, etc. In addition, some of the high-end handsets are lucky to last a year; or two if you're lucky.

As a result of these high-end components, such as A-GPS, 12 megapixel camera sensors, 720p video recording capabilities, large, high resolution AM/OLED screens etc, the future doesn't look any better for us, when it comes to the pricing of sim free handsets, and we will be left with little to no alternative but to rely completely on mobile networks for decent priced handsets.

neilled

Irish network handsets are sold through distributors who deliver to networks own stores as well as the likes of cpw. All handsets come from the same sources and come locked. This isn't the same in other larger markets like the UK where companies source stock from a number of different providers.

towel401

Rsaeire wrote: »

Networks are becoming more powerful in their strategies and business deals, so I would imagine CPW are looking at the bottom line. If the network exclusive handset offers that tie users into 18-24 month contracts are anything to go by, times are looking very bad for the consumer; not to mention the exorbitant tariff prices users are forced to live with.

As a result of these high-end components, such as A-GPS, 12 megapixel camera sensors, 720p video recording capabilities, large, high resolution AM/OLED screens etc, the future doesn't look any better for us, when it comes to the pricing of sim free handsets, and we will be left with little to no alternative but to rely completely on mobile networks for decent priced handsets.

but these networks are no charities - if you get a "cheap" handset you can be sure you will be paying the full price for it eventually. which is i suppose why all the 'sim only' deals are cheap. thats the only good thing to come out of the mobile phone industry lately - sim only deals with 30 day contracts.

back in the day a 3310 would cost you close enough to 250e to get one unlocked but now that will buy you at least 3 unlocked "ordinary" mobile phones so the cost of all but the most ridiculous (N97, iphone) has gone down a good bit

Our man in Havana

All there are doing is keeping the unlockers in business.