HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Definitely not the poor-man's iPhone. If you are poor not to afford an iPhone, you wouldn't spend money on an advanced mp3-player.
Again,
iPod = $299 or $399 ONCE
iPhone = as little as "free*" plus about $1200/year for service
How someone can see the iPod as more expensive is beyond me. If you don't sign up for the $2,000 (over 2 years) toll, then the iPhone outright (no contract) is up to about 2X the cost of the iPod.
iPod plus Talkatone and/or Skype plus earbuds with microphone is a great "poor man's iPhone". You can make and receive calls, text all you want, and use almost every app that iPhone users enjoy. You can do all of this for as little as the initial cost of the purchase and all the free wifi you can find.
Where it comes up short vs. iPhone is if you need to be able to take & make calls and/or immediately receive and send texts from anywhere and you get away from a wifi signal... or if you want to take/make calls while in motion (such as riding in a car or bus). In those situations, you need a 3G/4G connection and thus an iPhone. But if calls could go to voice mail and texts can wait until you get some wifi, the loss of that anytime, anywhere convenience saves you about $1,000/year.
If you want to go one step further, pick up a cheap mifi device with cheap plan and that gives you 3G/4G everywhere- albeit with the pain of carrying a second device. I've done this and it works great too but I prefer the "poorer man's" solution of only tapping 3G/4G when it is an emergency and I just can't wait until I get to some free wifi. Another dual device option: get a cheap "dumb" cell phone for calls just for calls and use the iPod for all of the app goodies.
All that said, I still think the iPad Mini is the better current option since this mifi emergency option is built into it. I've used an iPad Mini LTE as my "iPhone" since it launched and haven't had to tap the LTE yet. Some calls go to voice mail and some texts wait until I'm in a wifi zone but no big deal for me. I still get every call and I still receive every text. I'm probably not a "poor man" by definition but I prefer the $1000/year to stay in my pocket rather than giving it to AT&T or Verizon for anytime, anywhere. Effective ways to save money like that is how to go from poor to not poor anymore. I think iPad Mini with LTE is the best "poor man's iPhone" available right now.
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