Early Termination Fee.
I think, that all you have to do, is pay off the remainder of your contract, here in the UK(been a while since I left a carrier early).
I jumped to O2 in Feb 2008, after being with 3 for four years previously.
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I guess the iPad will have its arse kicked
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I think, that all you have to do, is pay off the remainder of your contract, here in the UK(been a while since I left a carrier early).
I jumped to O2 in Feb 2008, after being with 3 for four years previously.
Ah right
Well, it always amazes me that people will sign up to multi year contracts in a fast paced industry. I've only every done a year myself in the past which is fine as a year is not that long.
Like the people who have just signed up for a 2 year deal on the current iPad.
As I understand it here, the contract is the deal, not the phone.
You could take out a 2 year contract and after 6 months if something else comes out you want, sell the phone and just plonk the money in the bank, as long as you carry on paying the contract for the following 18 months (using the money from the phone sale plus a bit more) then no-one minds.
But I know, esp with kids, they don't think about next week, let alone 2 years away if they can get a brand new phone TODAY.
AT&T didn't give you a choice to sign for a less than 2 year contract. If you wanted an iPhone at the subsidized price, you have to sign up for a 2 year contract, period. They even tried to say that people who bought at full price or had used iPhones that they wanted to use on AT&T needed to sign up for 2 year contracts. Unless you knew what you are doing, you'd get talked into it.
How does money from selling a phone cover the price of 18 months worth of contract? The minimum monthly fee for an iPhone contract with AT&T is around $90 after taxes. (At least that's what it was last time I bothered to think about it.) So 18 months of that is around $1700. A new iPhone at full price is $600-$700. Even if you managed to sell your used iPhone for the same price as a new one, you'd be at least a $1000 short.
Both the Motorola Xoom and BlackBerry PlayBook look to be kick ass devices when released. I am leaning toward the PlayBook only because I only saw a demo video of Honeycomb so far and prefer the smaller size. QNX is taking cues from WebOS with their gestures and it looks even better than iOS or Metro. ALOT of people are already counting out RIM. Be warned because Motorola looked dead to me just a couple years ago too. Lots of people who saw a PlayBook at CES is giving it praises. QNX will surpass iOS as the best and slickest OS to me this year. I don't see that much changes from Apple this year at least, but we'll see. Their App Store is whats keeping them ahead. But when it comes to hardware and OS, they are getting surpassed.
Check this out -
BlackBerry PlayBook CES 2011 Attendee Testimonials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sETaMK0qOp4
I can't wait in March when I walk into my nearest Apple Store and compare the PlayBook vs the new iPad. The multi-tasking looks far superior on the PlayBook and I get Flash too. Might convince a few Apple zombies to second guess purchasing the latest iPad for a minute and convert. Even changing the ideas with a couple people is good enough for me.
Check this out -
BlackBerry PlayBook CES 2011 Attendee Testimonials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sETaMK0qOp4
I can't wait in March when I walk into my nearest Apple Store and compare the PlayBook vs the new iPad. The multi-tasking looks far superior on the PlayBook and I get Flash too. Might convince a few Apple zombies to second guess purchasing the latest iPad for a minute and convert. Even changing the ideas with a couple people is good enough for me.
Widgets on OSX - garbage
Widgets in android - awesome.
If you've never owned an android phone you don't know how great they are. I have my calender, alarm clock, overclocking stats, weather/time, facebook, twitter, bookmarks, search, music, wifi tether toggle, app shortcuts, news feed, note pad, and task manager on my 'home screen' using widgets. I can do pretty much everything I need in a few seconds at a glance, without having to open a dozen different apps to do it.
I didn't think widgets were a big deal until I owned and used an android phone for a while. Now I can never go back.
This attitude sums up all that is wrong with many (on both sides of the argument) here.
When I get a new device, I will take it home and enjoy it for what it does. It will be a product that works well for me (bearing in mind price etc), and I really couldn't care less whether it is right or not for anyone else.
Anyone who is looking forward to getting a product so they can run around with it trying to demonstrate to other people why it is so much better than what they have needs to take a look at themselves.
Enjoy your stuff and just leave everyone else to enjoy theirs.
And if I'm the person in the Apple shop that you try to convert then please excuse me in advance for ignoring you.
Dream on. Not gonna happen. the thing all these so-called competitors forget is, this ain't a PC. They keep dropping specs, just like they do with their PCs, thinking that's what people care about them most. It ain't. It's the overall experience-with the product and the company. Nothing will come close. End of story...
Except that tablet is not a phone but a mini computer. And while it is fine for a phone to be a consumption device, the tablet computers will sooner or later replace laptops. So you see now how apple might have gone the upper hand with the phone market but will not do so with the tablet market unless is opens up a bit. Right now I cannot do anything with my iPad except for playing games and watching news.
No, that's all you happen to use it for. There are a ton of other things you can do with an iPad. It's my main calendar and todo list. I use it to look up and edit work documents while on the go. Other people have also found ways to use the iPad as a productivity device, which you'd know if you just took the time to look around this forum and read a few threads.
Let's dissect your argument there:
1) iPad isn't good for productive applications.
2) Tablets need to be good productive devices eventually.
3) Thus Apple need to open up the iPad more
Between 2) and 3), something is missing. If I read your argument correctly, it's this
2.5) For a tablet to be a productive device, it needs to be "open"
That's what I call the "buzzword argument." You have the word "open," but there's absolutely no explanation or evidence how being more "open" will add to the device being more suitable for productive application.
Let's say Apple "opened" the iPad more. Now everybody can have private APIs and upload apps to the appstore without approval.
- Will it result in more office productivity software? No. The best tablet productivity software right now is made by Apple, the iWork suite. Opening up the appstore doesn't do anything that'll attract software makers for this kind of software. Also there are million external keyboards already available for the iPad to make it more productive for word processing, etc. Opening up the device will not do a single thing for this type of productivity.
- Will it help creative productivity software, such as music, movie, etc? No. Apple already makes iMovie which is the best mobile movie editor available and will be even better on the iPad when it gets released. There are many other music software already for DJ, mixing, etc on the appstore. They don't care if the device is open or not. Pressure-sensitive stylus is a hardware issue, it cannot be solved by opening up the device.
So opening up the iPad will not do anything to make it become more productive in the office or in the creative sector. All it'll do will be attracting quick-made Flash apps, system admin utility, third party onscreen keyboards, etc. Do those actually help the iPad become more "productive"?
All Honeycomb and Playbook showed was
- They can do Flash
- They have fancy multitask switcher - Apple's already moving to that direction in any case
- We have widgets!
- Did we mention they do Flash?
Other than the multitask switcher part, how exactly is Honeycomb more "productive" than the iPad? The iPad already has the best productivity programs for a tablet on the market. How does having Flash and widgets help those other tablets become more "productive"?
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Sheesh. Another pithy prediction from MacRumors. Another "iPhone/iPad/iPod killer".
More like, just another bug on Apple's windshield.
If you were fortunate enough to have an iphone, you'd know that there's a setting to not try to connect to random wifi sources while you're out of the house. And i guess you worry about battery life because you're so used to your droid sucking up battery life with it's multitasking.
The iphone is simply the BEST phone out there, period.
Thread FAIL.
Spec list >< user experience.
Seamless, polished user experience >>> disjointed funky user experience with otherwise "better" specs.
For the most part, NO other tablets have been released. I tried the galaxy tab. It sucks. I haven't tried the playbook or anything shown at CES. Until they ship, and we know firm price points, and hold them in our hands, and USE THEM EVERY DAY, the iPad is the king of the hill.
And oh yeah...apple isn't standing still. Not for a moment.
Spec list >< user experience.
Seamless, polished user experience >>> disjointed funky user experience with otherwise "better" specs.
For the most part, NO other tablets have been released. I tried the galaxy tab. It sucks. I haven't tried the playbook or anything shown at CES. Until they ship, and we know firm price points, and hold them in our hands, and USE THEM EVERY DAY, the iPad is the king of the hill.
And oh yeah...apple isn't standing still. Not for a moment.
Too many people try to make this argument and it never works. I love Apple, but I'm not an Apple fanboy. I love my Android phone, but I'm not a Google fanboy either. However, if you look at these arguments honestly, it's always some other company chasing Apple...in MP3 players, in handsets, in tablets. And then we always speculate on which "follower" will be the one to pick off the "leader".
BUT...as they say in business, the innovator always dies. Apple innovated the mobile phone industry, and now touchscreen, App-intensive devices are standard on all carriers. Apple innovated tablets, and it's too early to tell what's going to happen there. Two things are clear:
1.) Apple's model has worked very well for a very long time and I don't see a huge reason for them to change it. Apple knows, and any idiot should know, that when Apple creates and innovative product, someone else is going to copy it. They're used to this.
2.) The iPad is still fresh...the iPhone is getting old. I'm reminded of Palm in some ways. Palm was more extreme, I agree, but the "look", "feel" and "use" of the iPhone 4 is almost identical to iPhone 1. It's not exactly the same, but there hasn't been much evoluation after 4 different models. The Android lineup, while vast, offers many different hardware designs. I'm not saying Apple should put out 2-3 hardware designs per itteration, but they need to do something that makes this thing "pop" again. Now, in the design category, it just blends right in with every other touchscreen phone on the market. Apple has loyalists who will always buy it, and there are others who will follow because they hear that Apple is supposedly the best out there...but to be really honest you have to admit the iPhone is getting tired in the looks department and needs a change of some sort.
BUT...as they say in business, the innovator always dies. Apple innovated the mobile phone industry, and now touchscreen, App-intensive devices are standard on all carriers. Apple innovated tablets, and it's too early to tell what's going to happen there. Two things are clear:
1.) Apple's model has worked very well for a very long time and I don't see a huge reason for them to change it. Apple knows, and any idiot should know, that when Apple creates and innovative product, someone else is going to copy it. They're used to this.
2.) The iPad is still fresh...the iPhone is getting old. I'm reminded of Palm in some ways. Palm was more extreme, I agree, but the "look", "feel" and "use" of the iPhone 4 is almost identical to iPhone 1. It's not exactly the same, but there hasn't been much evoluation after 4 different models. The Android lineup, while vast, offers many different hardware designs. I'm not saying Apple should put out 2-3 hardware designs per itteration, but they need to do something that makes this thing "pop" again. Now, in the design category, it just blends right in with every other touchscreen phone on the market. Apple has loyalists who will always buy it, and there are others who will follow because they hear that Apple is supposedly the best out there...but to be really honest you have to admit the iPhone is getting tired in the looks department and needs a change of some sort.
But change for change's sake doesn't work, either. I think smartphones have "peaked" for the moment. There isn't much else anyone can do to make them drastically better, with currently ready-for-market technologies. Just like the desktop/laptop computers have changed only incrementally in the last decade, decade and a half. I think Apple can safely leave the smartphone on "coasting mode" for a while, and concentrate on tablets, and the direction it indicated with Lion, which is taking elements of the smartphone/tablet interface and putting them back onto the desktop/laptop. By the time everyone else realizes what a fantastic idea that is and are scrambling to make "lionized" versions of Windows or Chrome or whatever, Apple will be back to taking another big leap forward with the smartphones.
Your kidding right ? And your basing this off a couple of short videos or do you have hands on experience already ? Google has just now caught up with Apple and iOS. And Apple is not going to sit on its hands and watch the world go by. And take a close look at the limited videos of honeycomb. The UI is just awful. Looks dated and its not even available yet. And dont forget the user experience. Everyone is putting so much stock into the specs. Apple has a very smooth user experience and everything plays so nice together with Apple products.
Jason
This is getting more into features, as opposed to usability. Innovators lose out if they fail to keep pace on functionality and usability---that's what happened to Palm.
If you think that jazzing up the interface is all that's needed, I think your lunch is going to get eaten.
I mainly just wish Apple would fix it's terrible notification system (seriously, who doesn't think it's bad?)
I really wish they'd steel the "blind" that Android has.
For the sake of being informed, I decided to get an Android phone, and while I have LOVED my iPod Touch (and still do), there are some things in the Android OS that are really nice. For instance, being able to upload photos directly to facebook (or any other supported service) right from the photo application, and then being able to check the upload progress from Androids "blind" notification system (without having to switch back to another application). For Facebook and photo uploads this might not be so important, but for applications where you're working with larger files, it is.
Also, as great as Apple's multitasking is now days compared to how it was, I wish it'd get a bit better. I'm not sure how many times I've started doing something (for instance exporting a video from iMovie) and I wondered, "now, if I lock my phone will this cancel the export? how about if I switch applications?"
I really wish they'd steel the "blind" that Android has.
For the sake of being informed, I decided to get an Android phone, and while I have LOVED my iPod Touch (and still do), there are some things in the Android OS that are really nice. For instance, being able to upload photos directly to facebook (or any other supported service) right from the photo application, and then being able to check the upload progress from Androids "blind" notification system (without having to switch back to another application). For Facebook and photo uploads this might not be so important, but for applications where you're working with larger files, it is.
Also, as great as Apple's multitasking is now days compared to how it was, I wish it'd get a bit better. I'm not sure how many times I've started doing something (for instance exporting a video from iMovie) and I wondered, "now, if I lock my phone will this cancel the export? how about if I switch applications?"
I own & use both Android & iOS. From my perspective, and extensive personal experience they're both excellent, just different. In fact they're so different, it's the very reason I use and enjoy both.
Competition is the best thing to insure great products for consumers. Therefore I celebrate Android & iOS.
Competition is the best thing to insure great products for consumers. Therefore I celebrate Android & iOS.
Yep, like the break up of ma bell... Yadda yadda yadda, your lips are moving, but you 're not saying anything... Tell me about open and walled gardens while you're at it.
Honeycomb is nothing spectacular. I had an EVO with Froyo and it was buggy sub par garbage. Basic tools like SMS messenger crashed all the time and I reformatted several times within just months of having it. iOS has its share of bugs, but stable as a rock.
Apple could stop now and still be ahead for years. People will buy Apple products just because they are Apple. There aren't nearly as many people who have drank the Android Kool-Aid.
Apple could stop now and still be ahead for years. People will buy Apple products just because they are Apple. There aren't nearly as many people who have drank the Android Kool-Aid.