People doing this are usually young people and the dumb phones are handed down from their parents, so the marginal cost can be $0 for the phone. You can get prepaid plans for as little as $10/month (sometimes lower), so there's the potential to save a lot of money but it depends on the circumstances.
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Have anyone saved by buying a dumb phone and iPod touch?
- Thread starter piatti
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While you can save quite a bit of money by doing this, imo the point of having a smartphone is to consolidate the number of devices I need to carry. By carrying one iPhone I don't have to carry around a phone and an iPod and a digital camera and a gps (among other things). For me, that convenience is worth paying a bit more for.
Edit: after reading through the thread I see the same point was already made on the first page.
Edit: after reading through the thread I see the same point was already made on the first page.
Not enough value for what I need from a phone. The whole idea of having an iPhone (or any modern smartphone for that matter) is being able to access the web quickly and easily for any application (web browsing, social media, navigation, web search, et cetera).
used iPod Touch 5G 16GB: ~$150
dumbphone: ~$50
used iPhone 5/5c 16GB: ~$250
service cost: same
I'll take the iPhone, thanks.
dumbphone: ~$50
used iPhone 5/5c 16GB: ~$250
service cost: same
I'll take the iPhone, thanks.
This is exactly what I did until last year, when the 5s came out. Carried a flip phone with me at all times, and added the iPod touch (which was a hand-me-down from my wife) whenever I thought I might need access to my apps.
The flip phone was a generic AT&T ZTE phone that cost $18 for a refurb unit, and I used the $0.10/minute prepaid GoPhone plan that automatically refilled $25 every three months. I rarely went over on my voice minutes, and actually had to give up about $50 in rollover credits when I bought my iPhone and switched to T-Mobile. Never paid more than $120 in any given year for cell service.
If I needed data for the iPod touch, I would keep a database of wi-fi hotspots loaded up or borrow the shared mi-fi device from my office.
I went with this combo, because I thought smartphone plans were outrageously expensive and loaded up with all kinds of tricks and traps designed to lock in and fleece customers. The added functionality of a smartphone didn't matter to me if I felt the carriers were playing a game to see who could ream their customers more for the privilege of carrying a smartphone.
It wasn't until better prepaid and contract-free plans for the iPhone became available early last year that I considered buying a smartphone. With T-Mobile's $30 100 min/5GB prepaid plan, I pay just over $400 a year for my cell service. Pretty good, even though it's more than triple what I paid before!
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Service cost for feature phones though is not the same, especially if you go the prepaid route. On AT&T, my service charge was $25 for three months of service at $0.10/min. I only went over my minutes when traveling, and still wound up paying no more than $120 in any given year. And both phones I had with AT&T cost $20 or less.
Functionality is one thing, but cost is quite another.
The flip phone was a generic AT&T ZTE phone that cost $18 for a refurb unit, and I used the $0.10/minute prepaid GoPhone plan that automatically refilled $25 every three months. I rarely went over on my voice minutes, and actually had to give up about $50 in rollover credits when I bought my iPhone and switched to T-Mobile. Never paid more than $120 in any given year for cell service.
If I needed data for the iPod touch, I would keep a database of wi-fi hotspots loaded up or borrow the shared mi-fi device from my office.
I went with this combo, because I thought smartphone plans were outrageously expensive and loaded up with all kinds of tricks and traps designed to lock in and fleece customers. The added functionality of a smartphone didn't matter to me if I felt the carriers were playing a game to see who could ream their customers more for the privilege of carrying a smartphone.
It wasn't until better prepaid and contract-free plans for the iPhone became available early last year that I considered buying a smartphone. With T-Mobile's $30 100 min/5GB prepaid plan, I pay just over $400 a year for my cell service. Pretty good, even though it's more than triple what I paid before!
----------
Service cost for feature phones though is not the same, especially if you go the prepaid route. On AT&T, my service charge was $25 for three months of service at $0.10/min. I only went over my minutes when traveling, and still wound up paying no more than $120 in any given year. And both phones I had with AT&T cost $20 or less.
Functionality is one thing, but cost is quite another.
You can use iPhones on the GoPhone Pay As You Go $0.10/minute plans. AT&T doesn't advertise it but there's nothing in their terms of service preventing smartphone use on PAYG. That's the benefit of the GSM/SIM model. Just insert SIM and you're (mostly) good to go. Heck, right now I've got my iPhone 6 Plus on an H2O Wireless PAYG plan for $10/90 days while I'm still debating whether I want to switch from my 5s or not.
That's the drawback. You're not always connected. But, when I went with just a feature phone and iPod touch, I found that there were many times that I didn't need or WANT to be connected.
If I was on the go, I would pop by a place with a wi-fi hotspot (since AT&T provided my home internet service, I had free access to all their hotspots, including Starbucks).