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Why I Won’t Be Buying the New iPhone
The wait is (almost) over.
The highly-anticipated iPhone 3G will hit store shelves on July 11. The phone will now cost half as much as the original iPhone (the eight gigabyte version now costs $199, down from $399), and its new 3G technology will allow users to surf the web at much higher speeds.
I can already envision the lines that are likely to snake around the Apple store once the phone becomes available.
I won’t be in line.
Why? True, you can now get your hands on this fancy gadget for a more reasonable price. But, as a few publications have pointed out, AT&T (the exclusive carrier for the phone) has actually hiked the price of their plan by $10 a month.
ComputerWorld.com and Salon.com took a closer look at this, factoring in the iPhone’s mandatory, two-year contract with AT&T. The unlimited data plan goes for $30 a month (up from the $20 charged for the original iPhone). The iPhone also comes with a required voice plan, at $39.99 a month. So, at a bare minimum, the iPhone will run you nearly $70 a month.
Over the course the two-year contract, that comes to…drum roll, please…$1,878.76 (including the $199 for the cheapest iPhone). That’s nearly $940 a year – for one phone line!
The price looks especially hefty when stacked up against my father’s plan: he pays about $1,200 a year (including taxes and service charges) for our T-Mobile family plan, which includes four separate lines.
If you can afford to pay for an iPhone, well, more power to you. But if you’re on a budget, you can do a lot better. T-Mobile offers some pretty good deals, which typically include a free phone after rebates, while plans start at $29.99.
As for me, I’m sticking with my family’s plan.
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(3) Comments
Does your family plan have unlimited data??
On a strictly cost basis, your analysis is correct. However, like when it comes to job positions & salary, there are a lot of ‘intangibles’ that you can factor in that significantly boost the appeal of a position (or in this case, a phone).
Personally, I think the texting interface alone is worth the money, given my huge fat fingers; I can glide to what I want if I miskey, rather than having to backspace and try again. Screen real estate, available applications, etc etc etc all come into play.
I think a simple cost analysis is too simplistic a route to take in analyzing the worth of the the phone, unless you SOLELY plan to use it for phone calls and texting.
No, her she doesn’t have unlimited data. She probably doesn’t have much in the way of minutes, and she probably has basic phones that certainly don’t do what the iPhone does.
If you don’t want an iPhone - fine. If you can’t afford one - fine. I don’t care.
But don’t try to compare a smartphone to some basic, free Nokia phone on a crappy shared minutes plan that has no data or internet features.
But the reality is that I need a smart phone for what I do at work. I need constant access to email. I like only carrying one device, not two. I LOVE mobile Safari. It is the only useful mobile web browser I’ve tried - and I’ve tried them all. The overall quality of the software on the iPhone is so much better than any other phone I’ve used that whatever it costs is completely worth it to me.
And there are more incredibly amazing things coming on iPhone. Just wait. I predict with a high level of certainty that it will be the hottest mobile gaming platform out there in four months.