This is actually a better deal then paying $399 for an iPhone and two years service which millions will do in September without thinking twice.
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Sprint Drops Price on iPhone 4S to $149 With 2-Year Contract
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This is actually a better deal then paying $399 for an iPhone and two years service which millions will do in September without thinking twice.
False.
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We're taking the US here. You don't pay extra for the phone when u buy it subsidized. Plan prices don't change whether u buy the phone at full price, or subsidized for $149. You're jut locked into that carrier for the length of the contract. Thats it..Unless, of course, u pay the ETF.
I guess some of you don't realize, that there's a lot of customers who could care less about having the latest bandwidth technologies. Some people have iPhones to check their mail, play angry birds, and read the news.
But yea, let's give Sprint sh#t for cutting prices and publicly stating that they will NOT be adopting Verizon and AT&T's new pricing policies because they believe it's unfair to customers.
The things people will complain about astounds me sometimes.
But yea, let's give Sprint sh#t for cutting prices and publicly stating that they will NOT be adopting Verizon and AT&T's new pricing policies because they believe it's unfair to customers.
The things people will complain about astounds me sometimes.
Couldn't agree more.
FWIW, the bias is called "Post-purchase rationalization", where someone who purchases an expensive product or service overlooks any faults or defects in order to justify their purchase. With ATT and Verizon, those overlooked faults or defects are overly high price and plans that are bad for the consumer.
I don't understand why folks hate Sprint
AT&T is having a lot of success selling a 2.5 year old phone, so why can't Sprint sell a 10 month old phone? You all know that the iPhone 4S will be supported for at least two more years, and is still an excellent phone.
Sprint is the only reason why AT&T and Verizon are semi-affordable.
AT&T is having a lot of success selling a 2.5 year old phone, so why can't Sprint sell a 10 month old phone? You all know that the iPhone 4S will be supported for at least two more years, and is still an excellent phone.
Sprint is the only reason why AT&T and Verizon are semi-affordable.
Sprint cant adopt the ATT and Verizon models right now but you can believe that if they do ever get their network working half right ....they will join tiered data.....
Think of the last 2 years all the things Sprint has adopted like the big 2 or added a favor of their own:
Dropped Premier Upgrades
Upgrade activation fee to 36 bucks
14 day trial of service
NVP restructure twice
Insurance pricing restructure
$10 Premium Data FEE
I estimate by mid to late 2013 if the NOW network is half decent in 75% of its coverage areas .....they will cut the unlimited data thing...
Think of the last 2 years all the things Sprint has adopted like the big 2 or added a favor of their own:
Dropped Premier Upgrades
Upgrade activation fee to 36 bucks
14 day trial of service
NVP restructure twice
Insurance pricing restructure
$10 Premium Data FEE
I estimate by mid to late 2013 if the NOW network is half decent in 75% of its coverage areas .....they will cut the unlimited data thing...
I don't think "free" is the point here. The point is that if you pay your phone in full and use prepaid plans, you might run cheaper. Now, I don't know if that would add up right in the United States. In Europe, in most cases, it would. My brother in Germany buys phones full-priced and then pays less than $30 for unlimited data, unlimited texting and 2h talk included. That would be $720 + $850 for the max iPhone 4S 64GB = $1570. That is less than $65.50/month. This makes a lot of sense. In the United States though, you are discouraged to do that by rediculously high prepaid or on-the-go plans. There is no incentive to just keep your phone longer here that I can think of.
I'm waiting for the new iPhone to switch to Sprint. Living in Austin, we have Sprint LTE so I'm looking forward to unlimited service again, since my wife took my plan off unlimited a while ago to tether
Agree 100%. However we're in the minority on this and most tech sites. The majority can't rationalize why someone might not want a 5" display. To them it's bigger, it's newer, it's gotta be better, right?
It's fine being a techie but you have to sometimes take a step back into reality.
It doesn't help that pay-as-you-go smartphone plans suck in the US still. People always forget that part. (Verizon = $80/mo for only 1GB of data, AT&T = $75/mo for 1GB)
The only way Sprint is going to sell more iPhones, or any phones, is to blow every last extra dime they have on building out an LTE network NOW. I left them because not only did they not have WiMAX in my area but their 3G speeds decreased by 50% over the last two years.
It's a good move. They're getting market share for the people who 1) want an iPhone and 2) don't care about what's around the corner.
I'm willing to jump on any cellular provider bandwagon as long as they're playing nice. I was done with Verizon ages ago with their nickel and diming everything and now in a few days I'll be off AT&T to Straight Talk. I have no loyally to cellphone providers that continually screw people over.
Okay now I'm on a personal rant haha. Forgive me.
You're right -- with most American carriers, you aren't assessed any extra monthly fees when you buy a subsidized phone. In fact, with most American carriers, it's the people who don't take the subsidy who are overpaying. They're paying the extra expense that would have been associated with the carrier's need to finance the subsidy, even though they didn't actually take such a subsidy.
T-Mobile is the first nationwide American carrier to actually face this fallacy head-on and revise their pricing structure. They now really do have reduced prices for plans when you bring your own phone or purchase a phone full price without a subsidy.
For example, T-Mobile charges $60 per month for unlimited talk/text and 2GB-full-speed-Data/rest-of-the-month-throttled if you bring your own phone or purchase a phone at full price.
On the other hand, if you purchase a smartphone with a subsidy, the same plan costs $80 per month.
While this is true T-MO is the only carrier who has a decent plan (as I stated in my post above). Just like Sprint still has unlimited data the only reason these two offer advantages is because they are sinking ships. The two real carriers with a future have horrible non-subsidized plans.
I want T-mo and Sprint to succeed and keep the two giants on their toes but one is barely growing while the other has no LTE plans in place.
Sprint's LTE network is relatively small, so the new version won't be that much quicker on downloads, so it may be OK for some people. This time around, everyone knows a new phone is coming, so this sounds like a normal attempt to clear inventory.
A good move. I was able to get around the activation fee anyway by calling customer service but I guess this is good for any last second holdouts.
Unfortunately as many have said I think smarter customers will be waiting for LTE.
That being said I believe that my Sprint 3G speed is a little lower than Verizon around my area but I am on Wifi 99% of the time. The other 1% is when I am driving so it's probably good that I am not watching movies.
So while I am an atypical case, I probably won't upgrade my 4S until Apple stops supporting it entirely, such as iOS 8.
Unfortunately as many have said I think smarter customers will be waiting for LTE.
That being said I believe that my Sprint 3G speed is a little lower than Verizon around my area but I am on Wifi 99% of the time. The other 1% is when I am driving so it's probably good that I am not watching movies.
So while I am an atypical case, I probably won't upgrade my 4S until Apple stops supporting it entirely, such as iOS 8.
re: Sprint and speed issues
I guess you are lucky.
Everywhere I've gone with my Sprint iPhone 4s (or previous Android phones on Sprint's network), sluggish data rates are the norm.
I knew that going into it though, and you know what? It doesn't really bother me much. Thing is, I'd rather have unlimited slow data than really expensive, (usually) faster data.
These days, you should be able to access wi-f in many places, negating the concerns of slow 3G. In most other situations, I'm just checking email or looking something up on Google Maps or what-not. It's not that big a deal to wait a few seconds for things to pull up. I mean, geez... not THAT long ago, I was stuck using the "EDGE" network with no option of 3G.
I guess you are lucky.
Everywhere I've gone with my Sprint iPhone 4s (or previous Android phones on Sprint's network), sluggish data rates are the norm.
I knew that going into it though, and you know what? It doesn't really bother me much. Thing is, I'd rather have unlimited slow data than really expensive, (usually) faster data.
These days, you should be able to access wi-f in many places, negating the concerns of slow 3G. In most other situations, I'm just checking email or looking something up on Google Maps or what-not. It's not that big a deal to wait a few seconds for things to pull up. I mean, geez... not THAT long ago, I was stuck using the "EDGE" network with no option of 3G.
One issue that I think gets forgotten though is that as 4G/LTE becomes more prevalent, then the web page developers are going to get lazier regarding minimizing the data they send on a "mobile" page. The motivation to optimize the amount of data you're sending to make things load faster will be gone, because the thought will be, "Well, people have 4G/LTE now, and that's fast, so sending this extra 60K of data won't be an issue."
And people that still have 3G devices will be stuck with pages that load even slower.
No, driving across an entire state I averaged 3-4 Mbps on AT&T, with spikes up to 7mpbs. Sprint phone never broke 200kbps.
I'm not saying this the case everywhere, but it is definitely the case where I live.
I'd love to go back to sprint, I was with them for 10 years before I went to AT&T. Their plans are better priced and I always feel like AT&T is doing everything they can to screw me over. Regardless, having the additional speed is worth it to me.
LTE isn't available in my area yet for AT&T, but the 38mbps I was consistently hitting in Vegas on my AT&T iPad has me drooling. The speeds I hear people getting on Sprint LTE just don't compare.
And that's the dirty little secret the providers don't really want you know about. Call up your provider after you agreement is done and tell them to knock a few bucks off your monthly plan because your phone is now "paid off" and see how far you get.
Carriers know reduced pricing on phones drives traffic so it'll be interesting to see if other providers will actually follow suit. T-Mo is bleeding customers though so I doubt the big 3 see them as a threat in any way. Apparently of the reasons US Cellular, for example, doesn't carry the iPhone is the wholesale price is too high and they can't afford to subsidize it.
In the UK, the rule is that the phone companies just make their plans as confusing as possible. Whether that is intentional, or whether whoever sets up the plans is bad at maths, I cannot say. As an example, O2 sells the iPhone 4GS with six different plans. Plan A costs some amount. Plan B costs a bit more but gives you more; fair enough. With Plans C to F you pay more than Plan A but you get less, so you would have to be a total imbecile to take these plans. Then they have plans where you pay X pound for an iPhone with a 24 month contract, but you can get it for £50 less if you pay £5 more each month for 24 months, total £120, or you get it for £100 less if you pay £10 more for 24 months, total £240.
Not wanting to single out O2, the others are just as bad. And when they have "1 GB data per month", it is absolutely impossible to find out anywhere what happens if you exceed that limit.
I think for what someone else posted on this, it's throttled to 64kb/sec. That means it gets you email and you can browse but very sloooowly. Now, I remember the days I learned about programing Java Script, HTML and XML and back then, there was a 10 sec rule for the home page (this was a Netiquette thing. You don't want to loose the visitors because your page doesn't load fast enough). It had to be loaded within 10sec on a standard ISDN connection which apparently is 64kb/sec on a single channel. It is somewhat sufficient for browsing as long as you don't browse overloaded pages. You can even stream stereo music over it - barely, but possible. So, you might think it's bad but realistically, it might not be as bad. In the United States, they only throttle "high users" from grandfathered-in unlimited plans mostly which is the top percents and that might happen after several GB or you have a tiered plan and when you used up your 2-3GB base plan (unless you pay for a higher plan) and you pay for the next allotment extra. No drop-down-to-basic throttle for no extra pay.