Geektastic:

 

No need for them to subsidise it - they could simply sell it at the same cost as a variety of other retailers already do, surely? At present, they get none of the sales in that segment whereas for little effort they could get some - possibly even most - of them.

 

Good info there; thanks. I suppose the only reason to look for VoLTE etc is future proofing?

 

Saw a version of the OnePlus 6 in red on line (not in NZ) and that just looks fab.

 

Re: subsidies - the telcos are not truly in the business of selling phones over ~$299 outright. They sell a lot of very cheap phones, they sell a lot of expensive phones on finance (be it contracts or interest free), and they sell very little in-between, as well as very few outright flagships - customers that buy outright overwhelmingly buy through big box retailers. To the telcos, the risk of selling a dual SIM device - which is fundamentally designed to use multiple networks at once - is actively encouraging their subscribers to shop elsewhere, be it for prepay, postpay, roaming, or et cetera.

They do indeed cut themselves out of the market for dual SIM, but that market consists primarily of:

1. Customers who want to use two networks at once to get the best deal on Prepay

2. Travellers who don't want to pay hefty roaming charges

3. Business users who want to carry one phone with both a personal and work number on it

4. Enterprise customers / first responders who need dual network coverage for business continuity

The telcos don't care enough about those customer segments, which are by nature a very small percentage of the NZ market - and those customers are generally serviced by the big box retailers instead. The question I offer is if you don't want to take a dual SIM device on telco finance, why would you want to buy one from a telco - at full RRP no less - in the first place?

There is also the issue of costly certification and MOQs, the telcos can't just say 'Hey Samsung give me twenty dual SIM S9s for this one customer thanks'. All that said, 2degrees is the lone telco that's open to dual SIM, in part for range differentiation vs. Voda and Spark. Look for the dual SIM Moto G6 range to hit 2d shortly.

Re: VoLTE - this needs very specific, painfully specific, per-telco software implementation and testing to work. By the time NZ telcos roll VoLTE in who-knows-how-many years, the few existing 4G/4G devices on the market will be old news, and I highly doubt Huawei would invest the significant time and money required to get them certified for it - not least because the dual SIM P20s aren't officially available in NZ. So again, zero advantage in seeking 4G/4G over 4G/3G for NZ customers.

Re: the red OnePlus 6 - it does look rather nice. I am quite the fan of red phones when they are the right shade of red. Unfortunately the NZ market as a whole is not at this point, so I doubt we'll see it widely available here. Blue is the hot colour of the moment, which is quite curious as it has historically not been at all. As phones converge to generic rounded black rectangles, it's nice to see colour variety make a return.