Bumps in the long road to Vodafone 2.0

My cyberfreund and longstanding mega-uber value reader Keith McMahon has been burning the midnight oil in his dissection (vivisection might be a more appropriate term) of Vodafone's strategic vision, and pointing me to another peripheral story of disruption which may have much more profound implications. Elsewhere, another mega-uber value reader chimes in with the following anecdote, which underlines just how much pain lies in the road from here to there:

"As my personal 12 month contract was expiring, I contacted Vodafone customer services and spoke to an account manager... discussed various options and was told to phone back later in the week to check on stock levels for the Nokia N80.

- At this point the upgrade handset price was £120
- Mid-week it was £80
- Today, I have just agreed £30

Retail this is a £460 handset, so based on my tariff they are giving me two years' free line rental in the handset subsidy. There are some good things about high churn..."