31 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for March 8, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 59 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2013 02:30:30 -0700
From: Fred Atkinson <fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Re: Smart Phones
Message-ID: <20130307093005.6AE1273B851EC@gateway16.websitewelcome.com>
At 10:12 PM 3/6/2013, you wrote:
>>> (Another person on the forum) wrote:
>>> The costs of smart phones are ridiculous.
>>
>> Sometime last year a major news organization (I think it was ABC)
>> announced that the build cost of an iPhone is US$8, which if true
>> means the markup is over 98% of the inflated price.
>There is a far more important aspect than "mark up" on the price of
>raw materials -- are we going to allow legal free markets to
>flourish, with all their dynamism, or are we going to somehow dictate
>"fair" prices?
>It really doesn't matter whether the parts cost 80 dollars, 80 cents
>or even 8 cents. (And there are many, many more costs than just the
>parts.)
>What matters is whether the market will support the asking price. Of
>course, there are market distortions from government regulation,
>intellectual property issues, unlawful price fixing by producers, and
>many other items. There are also regulated monopolies for specific
>purposes.
>But on balance and all things considered, prices based on market
>perceptions (those prices often soon corrected by market realities)
>is far better than some central authority commanding a "fair"
>price. We've seen how well that has (not) worked in various places.
>Laws and enforcement protecting a free-as-practical market should be
>the focus, not the percentage mark-up on parts. Those figures truly
>mean nothing.
Who is John Galt?
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 20:27:49 -0500
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Re: Smart Phones
Message-ID: <nzn2dvtz7c66$.w9xbf2l77qpn.dlg@40tude.net>
On Thu, 07 Mar 2013 02:30:30 -0700, Fred Atkinson wrote:
> Who is John Galt?
(Shrug!) Cheers, -- tlvp (aka Atlas :-) )
---
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
***** Moderator's Note *****
John Galt is one of the characters in Ayn Rand's famous book "Atlas
Shrugged". There is a fairly good, two-part film adaptation of the
book: although only Part 1 is available, it's a great way to pass an
afternoon.
Rand's work was from the time before air travel became common, when
railroad monopolies were still a major economic force. However, the
concepts and ideas Rand espoused are still earth-shaking, even though
her critics tried to marginalize her. If you haven't read the book, I
recommend it, but when you see "Taggart Transcontinental", think
"AT&T".
Dagny Taggart was the first feminist.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:24:47 -0500
From: John Stahl <aljon@stny.rr.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Smart Phones
Message-ID: <13.26.06772.2FA68315@cdptpa-omtalb.mail.rr.com>
Fred Goldstein wrote:
>The build cost of $8 that you refer to is simply the cost of assembling
>the parts at a Chinese factory. The itemized cost of the iPhone 5 is here....
<clip>
I think there is some confusion in the article(s) quoted in this
thread.
On March 4, 2013, Smartplanet.com had an article titled "Feeling the
pinch of China's labor shortage", by Channtal Fleischfresser, where
the author stated in the fourth paragraph that Foxconn's margin on
each Apple iPhone produced was $8.00!
This maybe the confusion generated in the other articles as margin is
the profit made on each of the tens of millions of units Foxconn
produces for Apple and not their actual manufacturing costs which
presumably would be higher.
Here is the link to the Smartplanet article:
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/feeling-the-pinch-of-chinas-labor-shortage/14016?tag=nl.e660&s_cid=e660&ttag=e660
John Stahl
Aljon Enterprises
***** Moderator's Note *****
The Smartplanet page cites a slate.com story from September, 2012, which is entitled
"Foxconn Getting By On $8 Per iPhone"
... which may be the source of the eight-dollar figure that has been under debate.
The Slate story is at
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/09/25/foxconn_getting_by_on_8_per_iphone.html
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 23:52:07 -0500
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: FTC vs. phone text-spam. Maybe
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1303072341410.7423@panix3.panix.com>
[FTC press release]
In eight different complaints filed in courts around the United States,
the FTC charged 29 defendants with collectively sending more than 180
million unwanted text messages to consumers, many of whom had to pay for
receiving the texts. The messages promised consumers free gifts or prizes,
including gift cards worth $1,000 to major retailers such as Best Buy,
Walmart and Target. Consumers who clicked on the links in the messages
found themselves caught in a confusing and elaborate process that required
them to provide sensitive personal information, apply for credit or pay to
subscribe to services to get the supposedly "free" cards.
======
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2013/03/textmessages.shtm
- A question for our SMS mavens. Per the NY Times article [a]:
"Spam waves have become much more frequent since phone companies began
offering unlimited text-messaging plans. Now, spammers buy hundreds of SIM
cards, the chips that make cellphones work, allowing them to send a flood
of messages and then abandon the phone numbers."
[a]
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/business/government-takes-legal-action-over-phone-spam.html
- I'm wondering about that for a couple of reasons. First is
that you'd (the spammer, that is) still have to type in
each msg into the phone. That kind of limits it to a
hundred or so per hour.
- Now that's a big number, but it ain't a BIG number.
Are there computerized phone/sms/SIMcard thingees? I've
never seen one but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
That being said, it should be trivial for any legit cellco
to rate-limit a subscriber's SMS throughput.
Pretty much all the phone-sms spam I've received has
been through an e-mail-to-sms gateway. Which, of course,
brings up that whole issue of why the (recipient)
cellcos don't offer a "block" of those msgs while
still allowing "from another cell phone" ones.
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
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