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Ford Dumping CD Player


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Regardless of what they're charging today, they'll have to charge more to support unlimited data users so your bill goes up.

 

There is plenty of competition in most cities. It's not cost efficient to have so many companies putting up their own infrastructure in each city. Same reason you typically only have one cable provider in a location. The key is to have just enough for healthy competition.

 

Plenty of competition? AT&T and Verizon already own over 60% of the entire market. Almost all of the rest is owned by Sprint and T-Mobile. Sure you have little U.S. Cellular hanging in there by a thread and a few other regional carriers. Now combine AT&T and T-Mobile and I bet they and Verizon end up with closer to 70%. The little guys are providing plenty of competition? LOL That's funny. They are charging more for less data (anyway you cut it they are) because they know they can get away with it and make mega bucks, not because they can't afford it. Why is Sprint still offering it? I mean if AT&T and Verizon can't afford it, how in the heck can little Sprint? They want you to believe the whole line that they can't afford to support that little 2% group that is hogging data. That is just the line they sell because it sounds good to people and makes them feel good about paying more for less to these corporations.

Edited by 2005Explorer
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Plenty of competition? AT&T and Verizon already own over 60% of the entire market. Almost all of the rest is owned by Sprint and T-Mobile. Sure you have little U.S. Cellular hanging in there by a thread and a few other regional carriers. Now combine AT&T and T-Mobile and I bet they and Verizon end up with closer to 70%.

 

So let me see if I understand - worst case we go from 4 providers to 3 providers, so the consumer still has at least 3 different providers to choose from plus local providers in most cases.

Tell me again how that's not competition? How many do you need? 50?

 

They want you to believe the whole line that they can't afford to support that little 2% group that is hogging data. That is just the line they sell because it sounds good to people and makes them feel good about paying more for less to these corporations.

 

There is no "afford it" or "can't afford it" - the only question is how much will get passed on to the consumers. Any additional cost to a business is eventually a cost to consumers.

 

98% of customers only use 60 mb per day or less. The other 2% could easily use that much in one day. And the cell phone companies have to provide the capacity to handle all that data at peak load so of course it costs more to support that "little 2%" group.

 

Why doesn't Sprint charge extra? Let's see......

 

AT&T gets iPhone, iPad. Drops unlimited data plan.

Verizon gets iPhone, iPad. Drops unlimited data plan.

Sprint doesn't have iPhone or iPad.

 

See a pattern?

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So let me see if I understand - worst case we go from 4 providers to 3 providers, so the consumer still has at least 3 different providers to choose from plus local providers in most cases.

Tell me again how that's not competition? How many do you need? 50?

 

 

 

There is no "afford it" or "can't afford it" - the only question is how much will get passed on to the consumers. Any additional cost to a business is eventually a cost to consumers.

 

98% of customers only use 60 mb per day or less. The other 2% could easily use that much in one day. And the cell phone companies have to provide the capacity to handle all that data at peak load so of course it costs more to support that "little 2%" group.

 

Why doesn't Sprint charge extra? Let's see......

 

AT&T gets iPhone, iPad. Drops unlimited data plan.

Verizon gets iPhone, iPad. Drops unlimited data plan.

Sprint doesn't have iPhone or iPad.

 

See a pattern?

 

I think you are the only person I have ever met that thinks all Corporate PR (or maybe I should say BS) is 100% honest. It makes you feel good to pay more for less doesn't it? There are a lot of honest corporations in this world, but I can tell you when it comes to the U.S.telecom industry there is a whole lot of hanky panky going on.

 

EDIT: I like Apple, but with the whole iCloud thing coming things are going to get worse. I predict that soon more and more Cable and DSL operators are going to go down the same path the wireless providers have went and start imposing data caps. It will all be in the name of "the 2% who abuse unlimited" and the rest of us will just have to pay up or turn the computers off. I am sure you will applaud this move, but I sure won't.

Edited by 2005Explorer
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AT&T gets iPhone, iPad. Drops unlimited data plan.

Verizon gets iPhone, iPad. Drops unlimited data plan.

Sprint doesn't have iPhone or iPad.

 

See a pattern?

Sprint's customer satisfaction ratings will show greater improvement than those of AT&T and Verizon?

Sprint will offer better, more innovative end-user mobile devices than iPhone, iPad?

Sprint's LTE network buildout will accelerate?

Edited by aneekr
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Sprint's customer satisfaction ratings will show greater improvement than those of AT&T and Verizon?

Sprint will offer better, more innovative end-user mobile devices than iPhone, iPad?

Sprint's LTE network buildout will accelerate?

 

If Sprint was offered where I live I would switch because I'd rather go with the smaller company that actually has to offer good value to retain or attract new customers.

 

The commercial telecom industry is 100% about the profit. They hold back as long as they can on upgrading and installing new technology and only do so if the competition forces them. Verizon is hard at work on their 4G network because they had no choice. If they had a choice they would have milked the 3G network for a few more years like AT&T is doing.

 

Anything is possible when profit is the least of your concern which is why cooperatives have been so successful in bringing state of the art telecommunication services to the rural folks. My parents live 10 miles away from a town of 800 people yet they have broadband DSL service and so do neighbors that live 20-30 miles out and it is very sparse in population. It is a very respectable 6 Mb/s unlimited down service which considering where they live is excellent. How is that possible? In many parts of the country rural folks cannot get good broadband service. All of the big telecom corporations claim it can't be done, however Golden West Telecommunications Coop. is running fiber optics out to the most rural places and providing these people with the best service available. The reason they can do it and the corporations can't is because they invest all of their profit right back into the company and what is left is paid out to all of the members in a yearly Capital Credit Check. Now I can't expect the big US Telecom corporations because they are for profit, but it just proves that anything is possible and that the decisions they make are in the name of profit NOT improving lives of customers.

Edited by 2005Explorer
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EDIT: I like Apple, but with the whole iCloud thing coming things are going to get worse. I predict that soon more and more Cable and DSL operators are going to go down the same path the wireless providers have went and start imposing data caps. It will all be in the name of "the 2% who abuse unlimited" and the rest of us will just have to pay up or turn the computers off. I am sure you will applaud this move, but I sure won't.

 

Cable Companies are already doing this...but you have to use around 250GB a month, which is ALOT!

 

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/04/att-broadband-caps/

 

But keep this in mind...I think people are miss understanding things...you can put your music on your phone and play it through sync vs bluetooth, which is totally free and doesn't use data, but if you Pandora, you will start eating up your data plans

 

 

 

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Here's my take on phone plans:

 

They're all lousy. The challenge is evaluating the huge variety of them in order to gauge which particular plan will be least lousy for your own personal situation. No matter what happens, you're going to get stuck with 1) a contract, 2) a device that will be obsolete before your contract is up, 3) horrible customer service, 4) unintelligible billing and 5) at least a dozen moments of towering yet impotent fury over the course of your contract.

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I think you are the only person I have ever met that thinks all Corporate PR (or maybe I should say BS) is 100% honest. It makes you feel good to pay more for less doesn't it? There are a lot of honest corporations in this world, but I can tell you when it comes to the U.S.telecom industry there is a whole lot of hanky panky going on.

 

It has nothing to do with corporate PR - it has to do with understanding corporate business cases and cost structures.

 

If you increase the amount of data traffic that a cell phone provider has to accomodate at peak time by a factor of 10 or 20 or 80 then they have to install enough fiber and/or copper to handle that much and it's extremely expensive.

 

I don't think you understand the difference between cellular voice calls and someone watching youtube videos all day or streaming Pandora continuously and the impact that has on the network.

 

Sprint doesn't have enough big volume users yet to feel the pinch. If they get big enough with the latest smart phones they will though. It's inevitable.

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If Sprint was offered where I live I would switch because I'd rather go with the smaller company that actually has to offer good value to retain or attract new customers.

 

The commercial telecom industry is 100% about the profit. They hold back as long as they can on upgrading and installing new technology and only do so if the competition forces them. Verizon is hard at work on their 4G network because they had no choice. If they had a choice they would have milked the 3G network for a few more years like AT&T is doing.

 

Anything is possible when profit is the least of your concern which is why cooperatives have been so successful in bringing state of the art telecommunication services to the rural folks. My parents live 10 miles away from a town of 800 people yet they have broadband DSL service and so do neighbors that live 20-30 miles out and it is very sparse in population. It is a very respectable 6 Mb/s unlimited down service which considering where they live is excellent. How is that possible? In many parts of the country rural folks cannot get good broadband service. All of the big telecom corporations claim it can't be done, however Golden West Telecommunications Coop. is running fiber optics out to the most rural places and providing these people with the best service available. The reason they can do it and the corporations can't is because they invest all of their profit right back into the company and what is left is paid out to all of the members in a yearly Capital Credit Check. Now I can't expect the big US Telecom corporations because they are for profit, but it just proves that anything is possible and that the decisions they make are in the name of profit NOT improving lives of customers.

 

So why don't you go start your own telecom company whose only goal is improving the lives of your customers?

 

Those "evil" corporations provide millions of well paying jobs. Is that evil too?

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CDs will go away. But not next year, or the next 5 years. You can still go on Crutchfield and buy cassette radios. But putting in my own CD player after spending a better part of 20 grand is something I feel I shouldn't do. Now if I wanted a cassette player, I would expect to go aftermarket.

 

It's too early - it's cost cutting..

 

 

I agree. I've been browsing this thread for a while and I can't believe how people think that the "new" USB technology in cars will cause automaker to quit cold-turkey the "old" CD technology. Automakers have a wide range of buyers that need to be satisfied, and a lot of people, including me, still used CD's to some extent. I acutally use both technologies. My parents don't have a clue how a flash drive works, much less what a flash drive is, so CD's are their media format. Look how long it took automakers to get rid of tape decks (well past their time). I do attribute the USB port for the short and diminishing life of 6-disc systems though. As long as CD's are sold everywhere, CD players will be available in cars at least as an option, no matter what a "news" report says. CD's aren't dead yet.

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Cable Companies are already doing this...but you have to use around 250GB a month, which is ALOT!

 

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/04/att-broadband-caps/

 

But keep this in mind...I think people are miss understanding things...you can put your music on your phone and play it through sync vs bluetooth, which is totally free and doesn't use data, but if you Pandora, you will start eating up your data plans

 

The thing is that we are moving away from on-board storage and towards streaming content. Apple is moving forward with iCloud. Google is moving forward with Google Music Beta. I am sure there will be other companies that come up with solutions to "cut the cord" and this is where things are going to get very expensive for wireless customers. Of course with a duopoly in the cellphone industry (which you know that is where we are headed) people will have to pay the price if they want to have their content available. Pandora was just the beginning. The big dogs like Apple, Google and Microsoft are all coming forward with streaming and cloud based solutions. You think that 2 GB plan will be enough in a few years? I guess if you don't want to use your smart phone for any sort of media, but like it or not cloud based computing is where it's going. Expect to pay a huge amount of money in data charges if you want your content.

 

So why don't you go start your own telecom company whose only goal is improving the lives of your customers?

 

Those "evil" corporations provide millions of well paying jobs. Is that evil too?

 

I live in a place where we DO have telecom and electric cooperatives whose only goal IS improving the lives of their customers. You know they also provide well paying jobs. I wish my town was served by those co-ops because my rates would be lower and my service better. Don't think those wonderful corporations won't find ways to cut or outsource those well paying jobs either if they can find a way to make a little more cash. Ever gotten a Customer Service Rep from India that can hardly speak English? I have and it's pretty frustrating trying to get any help.

Edited by 2005Explorer
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The thing is that we are moving away from on-board storage and towards streaming content. Apple is moving forward with iCloud. Google is moving forward with Google Music Beta. I am sure there will be other companies that come up with solutions to "cut the cord" and this is where things are going to get very expensive for wireless customers. Of course with a duopoly in the cellphone industry (which you know that is where we are headed) people will have to pay the price if they want to have their content available. Pandora was just the beginning. The big dogs like Apple, Google and Microsoft are all coming forward with streaming and cloud based solutions. You think that 2 GB plan will be enough in a few years? I guess if you don't want to use your smart phone for any sort of media, but like it or not cloud based computing is where it's going. Expect to pay a huge amount of money in data charges if you want your content.

 

 

I use Amazon's "Cloud" service...guess what? I can still physically keep my data on my computer/server/etc etc and download it to a USB key, Smart Phone etc...For FREE!

 

The Cloud is good for accessing your data, but it won't be the "end-all" for everything...for the very reasons you put out.

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I agree. I've been browsing this thread for a while and I can't believe how people think that the "new" USB technology in cars will cause automaker to quit cold-turkey the "old" CD technology. Automakers have a wide range of buyers that need to be satisfied, and a lot of people, including me, still used CD's to some extent. I acutally use both technologies. My parents don't have a clue how a flash drive works, much less what a flash drive is, so CD's are their media format. Look how long it took automakers to get rid of tape decks (well past their time). I do attribute the USB port for the short and diminishing life of 6-disc systems though. As long as CD's are sold everywhere, CD players will be available in cars at least as an option, no matter what a "news" report says. CD's aren't dead yet.

 

You're living in the past. CD sales are one quarter of what they were 10 years ago and declining sharply every year. Being able to download an entire album in a matter minutes versus going too your local big box store and digging through the racks is kiling CD sales. Are they going away tomommorw? Of course not. But look for other auto manufacturers to follow Ford's lead. Remember, someone had to be the first to drop cassettes back in the day. I'm sure they were castigated as well.

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Here's my take on phone plans:

 

They're all lousy. The challenge is evaluating the huge variety of them in order to gauge which particular plan will be least lousy for your own personal situation. No matter what happens, you're going to get stuck with 1) a contract, 2) a device that will be obsolete before your contract is up, 3) horrible customer service, 4) unintelligible billing and 5) at least a dozen moments of towering yet impotent fury over the course of your contract.

 

+1 :happy feet:

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You're living in the past. CD sales are one quarter of what they were 10 years ago and declining sharply every year. Being able to download an entire album in a matter minutes versus going too your local big box store and digging through the racks is kiling CD sales. Are they going away tomommorw? Of course not. But look for other auto manufacturers to follow Ford's lead. Remember, someone had to be the first to drop cassettes back in the day. I'm sure they were castigated as well.

 

Part of the reason for CDs decline is illegal downloading. I am one who understands an artist needs to be paid for his/her work, either through the iTunes store or a store bought CD.

Edited by CKNSLS
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Part of the reason for CDs decline is illegal downloading. I am one who understands an artist needs to be paid for his/her work, either through the iTunes store or a store bought CD.

 

There was plenty of pirating around before downloading. The CD is simply an outdated format now, whether you buy music legally or not.

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Part of the reason for CDs decline is illegal downloading. I am one who understands an artist needs to be paid for his/her work, either through the iTunes store or a store bought CD.

 

Vast majority of what an artist gets paid is through Tours and whatnot...not CD sales....which is a whole nother thread.

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This sucks. I use my CD player every day I use the truck.

 

But I'm not too disappointed. Ford has never had a good quality head unit (not even their Sony crap in the new models is that great). So I've always replaced the head unit with an aftermarket unit with many more features, much better sound, more power output and output options.

Edited by V8-X
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Ford has never had a good quality head unit (not even their Sony crap in the new models is that great). So I've always replaced the head unit with an aftermarket unit with many more features, much better sound, more power output and output options.

Excellent point, though I think the highline THX branded system in some Lincoln models is quite impressive.

 

Speaking of trends in OE automobile audio, one that I don't like at all is the increased difficulty of replacing many of the latest "integrated" head units/control panels with aftermarket systems. Standardized, modular head units (e.g., those based on DIN or Double DIN form factors) were much better in this regard!

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You're living in the past. CD sales are one quarter of what they were 10 years ago and declining sharply every year. Being able to download an entire album in a matter minutes versus going too your local big box store and digging through the racks is kiling CD sales. Are they going away tomommorw? Of course not. But look for other auto manufacturers to follow Ford's lead. Remember, someone had to be the first to drop cassettes back in the day. I'm sure they were castigated as well.

 

Don't have to dig through racks of CD's. Just order online from places like Amazon. Plus they are usually sorted alphabetically by artist anyway. People usually know what artist they're looking when they're ready to buy. And you don't realize there is part of the population that does not know how to download albums off the web, such as the older generation who are not as computer literate, or simply does not want to. Others want physical copies that you don't have to worry about getting deleted. Many of us live in rural areas where downloading over a dial-up modem takes a little longer than a matter of minutes. And cassette players have not left vehicles that long ago, as I know for a fact a cassette player was still available in the F-150 as late as 2002.

 

CD players will be available in vehicles for many years to come as there are a lot of CDs in circulation.

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Speaking of trends in OE automobile audio, one that I don't like at all is the increased difficulty of replacing many of the latest "integrated" head units/control panels with aftermarket systems. Standardized, modular head units (e.g., those based on DIN or Double DIN form factors) were much better in this regard!

Yup, it sucks! This is partly why I like the 04-08 F150 interior better than the '09+ F150. People always hated the brick radios, but was much easier to upgrade your system with them than with these full center stacks now days.

 

And cassette players have not left vehicles that long ago, as I know for a fact a cassette player was still available in the F-150 as late as 2002.

Yup! My '02 F150 Lariat FX4 Scab had the tape player in the head unit, and a 6-disc change in the arm rest/console.

 

And heck, I wish they still had tape players in many head units. I can't begin to say how many tapes and CD's I've purchased over the generations, that I just can't bring myself to repurchase in digital format (tapes) or buy the equipment to convert tapes into digital. But I do use mp3 when possible. Just like to use all 3 formats when convenient.

 

I'm also kind of nostalgic (dork) with certain things too. So many tapes and their cases bring back memories from younger years. Re-reading the cases and thoughts and items that I haven't read in decades. It's kind of like looking at all the baseball and football cards I collected when younger.

Edited by V8-X
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Excellent point, though I think the highline THX branded system in some Lincoln models is quite impressive.

 

Speaking of trends in OE automobile audio, one that I don't like at all is the increased difficulty of replacing many of the latest "integrated" head units/control panels with aftermarket systems. Standardized, modular head units (e.g., those based on DIN or Double DIN form factors) were much better in this regard!

 

Bubububu everyone hates the "brick" head units......

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