As we reported the other day, Nokia is taking legal action against LCD manufacturers for price fixing; you can read the report (here). However, according to an article over on pcworld this action may well lead to lower handset costs.
They say that mobile devices, particularly smartphone, could be less expensive if the price for LCD displays isn’t artificially inflated, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the consumer would see lower priced smartphones as any saving would probably be gobbled up by carrier subsidies.
On the upside they also say that a user may just fork out the full price for a non-subsidised, no contract smartphone if the cost was lower, which makes sense.
Besides, let’s be honest, price fixing is illegal and thus should be stopped, and LCD makers should have to compete price wise for sales, and hopefully would lower the overall price of mobile phones, which in the long run could be good for the consumer.