Carl wrote:

> Asking the OP a rhetorical question, how can any vendor's pricing policy be
> "out of touch with reality" if they're selling their product?

Yes. Pricing needs to be set to maximize profit. You can be selling your
product too cheaply and be leaving money on the table, or you can be
charging too much and be losing customers that would raise profits by
virtue of higher volume. You can damage the image of your product by
getting into a price war with competitors that have a poorer product,
but you have to be careful to not charge so much for your superior
product that customers decide to put up with your competitors cheaper
product.

What most businesses do is figure out ways to appeal both to the
price-sensitive customer and to the customer that doesn't care about
paying more. I could pay much more for the Verizon service I have by
foregoing a corporate discount or adding worthless services such as "Get
It Now," or the g-d awful "Please Enjoy the Music While Your Party is
Reached" service where the music is always the same static-filled
classical piece. I could also probably pay less by switching to a
Verizon MVNO that charges as little as 5.3¢/minute, rather than paying
my current $32/month (which would buy me over 600 minutes per month at
5.3¢ each).

As to the iPhone, just think of how much better it would have sold were
it on Verizon's network, with its more widely deployed, and faster, 3G
service, not to mention its vastly superior voice network. Just look at
the latest Consumer Reports, as well as _every_ other independent
survey, then look at the bogus "fewest dropped calls" advertising
campaign that was based on data that even the company that did the
survey said did not support Cingular's conclusion.