Amercians, would you pay $968 for a 32 GB iPhone 5 unlocked?

[XboxMySocks]

I got the 32GB with applecare and I bought an extra cable.

Actually I bought applecare too

 

[pragmatous]

I'm thinking about trading in the 32GB black for a 64GB white. For an extra 100 might as well. Plus I think I like the white better. What color did you get?

Actually I bought applecare too

 

[XboxMySocks]

I'm thinking about trading in the 32GB black for a 64GB white. For an extra 100 might as well. Plus I think I like the white better. What color did you get?

I got the black. Only one in my city out of about 10 people that got black. I think it looks a lot nicer personally. I'll take your old one

 

[Moshe1010]

Assuming you can get iPhone 5 at exactly Apple's retail price, then yes. It saves money to get the phone at full price and pay your carrier independently. 2 years contract is including installment for the phone alone. There's this interest factor and all. So yes it costs more.

But in reality? How much an unlocked iPhone 5 costs in countries you mentioned? Does it exactly cost $649, $749, and $849 like Apple advertises?

Or more like $900 - $1500? Or even $1800?

In emerging countries (mostly Asians), iPhone is a luxury item. Getting the newest iPhone earlier makes you the boss, and this particular item comes with hefty marked up dollars. Strangely enough people would buy them.

So yes, at some narrow point, paying iPhone upfront may saves you a bit of dollars. But in reality, you hardly get a full retail iPhone at theoretical price. Renders your saving calculation obsolete.

Thus, to the main question.. Nope .. I wouldn't pay for a full retail iPhone more than Apple asks.

I was writing about US, not other countries. You stated before:

I believe my post you quoted stated the same idea .. You don't save money by paying upfront with US carriers

So my reply was about United States.
The prices around the world for an iPhone 5 are between $900-1300; and it's still more economical than the US because they pay $25-30/month for unlimited everything, which makes a big difference if you compare it to major US carrier prices (Verizon/Sprint/AT&T).

 

[alent1234]

Most of the calls these days are part of an unlimited minutes block so it doesn't matter

Yes you need to buy a cellular service that would cost you $25/month for 5GB DATA, unlimited call and text. That's $300 Vs. $1200 (or something like that) from AT&T. You can buy a new iPhone every year in that way.



No, it's not cheaper. US is the maybe the only country that's counting incoming calls as part of your minutes package, so you actually getting twice less. In Europe and the Middle East for example (places I travel regularly) you can get 5 lines for $100, with 5GB Data (later throttled ) and unlimited text and call. 5GB Data for each line by the way, not a shared crap like they do here in the US.
The only downside that these countries don't have LTE. Most of them work on HSDPA+, but that would change in the next couple of months.
P.S. Some of these countries banned contracts from the law, carriers don't have the ability to sign a contract with you, so you can change companies every week.