But that's the history that makes the flipping of the script so stark. Anybody embedded deeply enough in the company should be aware of that exact loss of reputation.
And if the company fails to know its own history well enough that even they are missing the point that speaks volumes about how they value institutional knowledge.
My understanding is there are already federal incentives to get less dense areas wired, though I'm not up to speed on the state of that - a quick Google tells me that USDA has loan and grants for it but unclear how well funded that is and how that would impact economics at $15 and $20 a month.
Given that more than half of the population of NY is in NYC and Long Island, I would imagine that there is enough density and economic diversity at least downstate to make this at minimum cost neutral though this is total conjecture.
As an aside, I remember the days of companies partnering with CLECs taking advantage of rural connectivity loopholes to create free conference calling services by billing larger upstream carriers and splitting that revenue with service providers, which was pretty clever.
I struggle to think of places that are more customer friendly overall than the US. There are certainly some companies with generally less favorable reputations like, say, Comcast but that's often a result of having a captive audience. One might even argue that our largest consumer oriented companies span so many different industries but all share good customer service and experience as a cornerstone.
There are more smartphones in use than people on the planet so it stands to reason that for many, the smartphone IS their interface to the world the way the desktop was (and maybe still is) for many of us. Seems more like an opportunity to implement a different design paradigm than something to be dismissed outright.
While we can debate plenty on what the right amount of App Store fees might be, it is objectively true that developers absolutely care about the market of available consumers on the high end platform.
I'm not aware of any pure platform available off the shelf, though I imagine a big enough checkbook and a conversation with Magna might get you pretty far, but you can buy from Ford the Mustang Mach-E motor https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-9000-MACHE
There are lots, but most are not road legal. All privateer racers in many race series use cars that are manufactured by established companies, then heavily modify them.
Alpine makes forks of BMWs.
Braubas makes forks of Mercedes.
RUF makes forks of Porsche.
The other example is when 2+ large manufacturers work together to cost share a platform.
Examples:
- BMW Z4 / Toyota Supra
- Subaru BRZ / Toyota GT86
- Mitsubishi 3000GT / Dodge Stealth
Several Aston Martin coupes were built on Jaguar platforms.
The NUMMI car factory in Fremont, CA was jointly owned by GM and Toyota before Tesla bought it. For a while, it made the Toyota Voltz / Pontiac Vibe.
I think people get the impression from the wording that the “platform available off the shelf” means the consuming manufacturer can just grab some units and modify them, but in practice, there is a massive contractual negotiation. And since car manufacturers are heavily regulated, it makes sense to cost share both the manufacturing and the standards / crash testing.
