Agreed. The complete integration between 2 iPhones, an iMac, and a MBP is a huge benefit. Also, I only have to carry one device.
I think that all of the wireless companies require you to have a data plan.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How do people find it worth paying the high monthly price for an iPhone?
- Thread starter applefan289
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Agreed. The complete integration between 2 iPhones, an iMac, and a MBP is a huge benefit. Also, I only have to carry one device.
I think that all of the wireless companies require you to have a data plan.
Cuz that's what the providers are charging, and until we as consumers stand up and do something about it, they'll continue to charge outrageous rates.
$25 for tethering? Awful...
BTW, you can't have an iPhone and not have a data plan.
Just to add to this thread: The OP has Tmobile USA service. I know a lot about Tmobile USA and ATT Mobility since I have been with both providers for 7 plus years going.
Tmobile has a unique (and in my opinion very fair way they address smartphone users).
If you buy a subsidized smartphone from them (say Android phone for $199 on contract) they slap a mandatory 24 month data charge (you cannnot get rid of this mandatory data charge even if you resell or don't use that fully subsidized phone).
So if you buy a $199 Samsung Galaxy phone, you are required to have at least the $15 limited or 30 unlimited data for the remainder of your contract.
However if you choose to pay full price for the phone AT $500 (or get it from craigslist/ebay) off contract, than Tmobile lets you have the option get add data or cancel data plans anytime.
In my opinion this is the fairest way to do business. What ATT/Sprint/Verizon do with their smartphone users is simply raping those those who buy off contract.
If you bring your own smartphone (or buy full price), it shouldn't be mandatory to force data to your plan. It's simply a cash cow for these companies. There is very little growth in the cell phone industry in terms of voice plans and even text plans (after essentially forcing people onto texting plans with those ridiculous 20 cents per message pay per use).
So the OP's main point is smartphone users pay and continue to pay monthly for data some do not need or want.
Tmobile has a unique (and in my opinion very fair way they address smartphone users).
If you buy a subsidized smartphone from them (say Android phone for $199 on contract) they slap a mandatory 24 month data charge (you cannnot get rid of this mandatory data charge even if you resell or don't use that fully subsidized phone).
So if you buy a $199 Samsung Galaxy phone, you are required to have at least the $15 limited or 30 unlimited data for the remainder of your contract.
However if you choose to pay full price for the phone AT $500 (or get it from craigslist/ebay) off contract, than Tmobile lets you have the option get add data or cancel data plans anytime.
In my opinion this is the fairest way to do business. What ATT/Sprint/Verizon do with their smartphone users is simply raping those those who buy off contract.
If you bring your own smartphone (or buy full price), it shouldn't be mandatory to force data to your plan. It's simply a cash cow for these companies. There is very little growth in the cell phone industry in terms of voice plans and even text plans (after essentially forcing people onto texting plans with those ridiculous 20 cents per message pay per use).
So the OP's main point is smartphone users pay and continue to pay monthly for data some do not need or want.
T-Mobile, while they get great non iPhone smartphones (HTC HD7...yes please), doesn't have coverage in as many places as the "big boys" ATT and Verizon. They're not a bad company, just not as large. If you're in an area where you can get TMobile and it will work well for you...you're in luck, cuz you're gonna get a great price. However, there's a reason they are able to charge less for data
Tmobile charges the same for data as ATT and Verizon. $30 for "unlimited smartphone data" but they throttle you to EDGE speeds after 5GB now. It used to be 10GB data.
That's fine. But the FCC should get to the bottom of all of these "unlimited" marketing by Tmobile, Verizon and ATT.
Companies feel like they are at a disadvantage if they offer "limited" data as opposed to "unlimited data".
Europeans, Asians, the rest of the world are used to tiered data. But people in the USA don't like to be the word "limited".
Explore discounts. I was paying the standard ~$110/monthly until two months ago when I learned about a 19% discount offered by clicking a few links on my employer's website. I also learned about a special promo (expired sorry) going on in the SoCal area for Verizon from the fatwallet hot deals forum. I could have gotten most of this a LONG time ago, but I didn't bother checking for discounts.
The issue is cell phone bills are getting larger as the years pass. Regardless of what you do, state and local governments have been adding ridiculous user taxes over the years.
State and local government used to rely on landline crazy use tax charges. Now they've lost their cash cow as more Americans rely soley on cell phones. These entities have set their sites on adding more use taxes for cell phone users.
So iphone or no iphone, you bill will go up.
State and local government used to rely on landline crazy use tax charges. Now they've lost their cash cow as more Americans rely soley on cell phones. These entities have set their sites on adding more use taxes for cell phone users.
So iphone or no iphone, you bill will go up.
How do I do it? I do it for a variety of reasons
1) I use it almost all day...literally...almost all day
2) I LOVE the apps whether news or sports and view them OFTEN and for free
3) Love the simple games I can play
4) Love the iPod aspect
5) Love the size
It's the best overall smartphone in the market (I've used everything out there) that has great after sale & developer support. It may not do every single thing but the little it does, it does brilliantly. Compared to others who often promise a lot and fail at execution...sometimes in more ways than one.
I love my iPhone, no matter how many times I've cheated I keep coming back to it. So I don't even bother looking over the fence anymore.
PS- iPhones are reasonably priced here so I don't really pay anything extraordinary.
I love my iPhone, no matter how many times I've cheated I keep coming back to it. So I don't even bother looking over the fence anymore.
PS- iPhones are reasonably priced here so I don't really pay anything extraordinary.
Here's my justification:
1. I like good eats, so I Yelp a lot when I am out w/ my friends
2. I buy stuff w/ Amazon and eBay, so that's convenient
3. I like to keep up to date my FB etc
4. I am grandfathered in, unlimited data
5. I like chatting w/ my friends via BeeJive
6. I am email freak
I'm surprised I don't pay more for my plan. But I do get 20% off my bill because I have corporate discount
1. I like good eats, so I Yelp a lot when I am out w/ my friends
2. I buy stuff w/ Amazon and eBay, so that's convenient
3. I like to keep up to date my FB etc
4. I am grandfathered in, unlimited data
5. I like chatting w/ my friends via BeeJive
6. I am email freak
I'm surprised I don't pay more for my plan. But I do get 20% off my bill because I have corporate discount
Its easy if you cant afford it or dont want to pay the monthly plan for an iphone thru AT&T or Verizon you go with something you can afford or works better for you.
MetroPCS, Boost mobile, Tmobile etc...
To some people the coverage and 3G speed the 2 major carriers provide is worth it. Same reason why some people drive BMW's and Benz and others Kia and Hyundai.
One word: military.
I travel a lot for my monthly national guard drills and now I'm in Mississippi for mobilization training where there is no wifi but decent 3G coverage. I hardly ever found a wifi hotspot at the places I went in my city and most of the ones I did find, my 3G was faster anyway. Email on the go is very important to me, and I stay connected to a lot of college friends with facebook so it's nice to check in with them at any moment I want as well. I can also do mobile banking/bill paying and checking my paychecks (I had my first ever pay issue in 6 years of the army) and I caught it because I had on the go connectivity to check my LES statements.
It has been completely worth it to me from day one when I got the 3G as my first smart phone.
I travel a lot for my monthly national guard drills and now I'm in Mississippi for mobilization training where there is no wifi but decent 3G coverage. I hardly ever found a wifi hotspot at the places I went in my city and most of the ones I did find, my 3G was faster anyway. Email on the go is very important to me, and I stay connected to a lot of college friends with facebook so it's nice to check in with them at any moment I want as well. I can also do mobile banking/bill paying and checking my paychecks (I had my first ever pay issue in 6 years of the army) and I caught it because I had on the go connectivity to check my LES statements.
It has been completely worth it to me from day one when I got the 3G as my first smart phone.
Like everyone here has said already, the cost is not restricted to an iPhone and is pretty much exactly what you would be paying for ANY smartphone.
i think people pay these high cell phone costs because of convenience. look at 711. why is the $1 bag of sun chips at the supermarket suddenly $1 more at 711? there's one supermarket in a 5 mile radius. there's five 711's in that same radius. you pay for convenience. bad metaphor, but relate it to the iphone:
with one device, i can make phone calls, send text messages, take pictures and record video. i have a calculator and a notepad on hand. i can check the weather whenever i feel like it. i can listen to 4000+ songs. if that gets boring, i can stream online radio. if that gets boring, i can watch the videos i've uploaded to my phone. if that gets boring, i can stream online video. then there's social networking in the form of facebook/twitter/yelp/beejive/skype to catch up on. i can check the news and check game scores. i can read a book (or 600). if i'm lost, i have a map that provides directions. there are games to play. there is shopping to be done. i can retrieve files from my desktop at home. i can review powerpoint slides for an upcoming exam.
if cost is a factor for you, then downgrade to a pay as you go phone and get the newest itouch. you still get to be an "apple guy" and can can use your phone as *designed* and not have to pay a high monthly price for an iphone.
pretty naive, i know, but i find it hard to believe that you use no data. i think i'd die if i had to go through a day without pandora.
with one device, i can make phone calls, send text messages, take pictures and record video. i have a calculator and a notepad on hand. i can check the weather whenever i feel like it. i can listen to 4000+ songs. if that gets boring, i can stream online radio. if that gets boring, i can watch the videos i've uploaded to my phone. if that gets boring, i can stream online video. then there's social networking in the form of facebook/twitter/yelp/beejive/skype to catch up on. i can check the news and check game scores. i can read a book (or 600). if i'm lost, i have a map that provides directions. there are games to play. there is shopping to be done. i can retrieve files from my desktop at home. i can review powerpoint slides for an upcoming exam.
if cost is a factor for you, then downgrade to a pay as you go phone and get the newest itouch. you still get to be an "apple guy" and can can use your phone as *designed* and not have to pay a high monthly price for an iphone.
pretty naive, i know, but i find it hard to believe that you use no data. i think i'd die if i had to go through a day without pandora.
So why buy a smartphone in the first place? Isn't that the whole point of having one? The ability to use the data? If you don't need or want data, then just get a regular feature/dumb phone and be done with it.
I think the OP's point was more about smartphone charges in general. You mine as well get an ipod touch if you're not going to pay for data. I guess an ipod is one more device to carry around but still.
My work pays for my iphone bill. Back when the monthly bill was $80 (no $15/200MB plan option) I definitely wouldn't have paid that out of my own pocket. But now that my bill is $62.50 w/ tax I might do it. Still tough to justify when you can get a dumb phone on a prepaid account for $20 a month. I had an ipod touch before my iphone and it was annoying not to have data when I was out and about.
Last edited:
If you can get a discount it's not so terrible, but even then it's sorta expensive. Either way, I would've been able to pay $50 a month for an iPhone and am paying about that for my G2 anyway.
It doesn't bother me because I was already paying $35 for my dumbphone, and uh.. well.. there's always virgin mobile for $25/mo ,they have android phones but their phones are like a taste of heaven... literally. It can almost run smartphone games.. it can almost play internet radio, it can almost do lots of great things that other smart phones can. But it can't. (and by it, I mean the samsung intercept and LG optimus virgin mobile sell).
It doesn't bother me because I was already paying $35 for my dumbphone, and uh.. well.. there's always virgin mobile for $25/mo ,they have android phones but their phones are like a taste of heaven... literally. It can almost run smartphone games.. it can almost play internet radio, it can almost do lots of great things that other smart phones can. But it can't. (and by it, I mean the samsung intercept and LG optimus virgin mobile sell).
^
it's still pretty bad with a discount. i think corporate discount nets me 14% off and i'm still paying $82/month. 450 anytime minutes, unlimited data, unlimited texts. yes $82/month for a cell phone bill is high, but i have no problem paying for convenience.
it's still pretty bad with a discount. i think corporate discount nets me 14% off and i'm still paying $82/month. 450 anytime minutes, unlimited data, unlimited texts. yes $82/month for a cell phone bill is high, but i have no problem paying for convenience.
$30 a month extra for unlimited internet wherever i am?
$7.50 a week to be able to stream a hundred thousand different radio stations in my car?
$1 a day to have limitless streaming porno at my fingertips at any given moment?
HELL yes its worth it.
$7.50 a week to be able to stream a hundred thousand different radio stations in my car?
$1 a day to have limitless streaming porno at my fingertips at any given moment?
HELL yes its worth it.
After reading this thread, it seems the main reason people want an iPhone (or other smart phone) and pay the ridiculously high monthly fee is because: people find the convenience of the data plan, and the features of the iPhone worth it.
It's like paying the ridiculous price for room service at a hotel, when you could just go to the lobby and get something to eat for a lot less.
What ever happened to "waiting until you get home" to check emails? Carrying the internet around with me all the time would seem like overkill, and would be sort of annoying.
In fact, I have my cell phone off almost all the time, and use my Xfinity Voice line to make all of my calls (when I'm out, I find it sort of inconvenient to be checking emails while walking in a mall, etc.).
It's like paying the ridiculous price for room service at a hotel, when you could just go to the lobby and get something to eat for a lot less.
What ever happened to "waiting until you get home" to check emails? Carrying the internet around with me all the time would seem like overkill, and would be sort of annoying.
In fact, I have my cell phone off almost all the time, and use my Xfinity Voice line to make all of my calls (when I'm out, I find it sort of inconvenient to be checking emails while walking in a mall, etc.).