iPhone Pricing Questions, Carrier Plan Hints

[3282872]

Since Orange "gave" me £225 for my phone ($450), if subsidised the 4GB iPhone could easily be £50-£100 on a £25/month contract which would be an excellent price. Otherwise you might get a much better tariff.

God, I miss the UK and Europe. I need to move to London or Spain. With all the political crap in the US coupled with big business crapping on just about everyone (if I have never see one more Walmart or chain restaurant again it'll be too soon), I'm thinking I might be getting off this sinking ship... and fast. Sadly, my last trip to London I saw nothing but American businesses where once stood a Mom and Pop local business or something non-American - Blockbusters, Pizza Huts, Burger Kings, it was too much and very disheartening...

 

[mongoos150]

One is a toy, one is a tool. Tools make money.

How wrong you are. The PS3 is not merely a game machine, it's a blu-ray disc player. The whole reason Sony placed a BR drive in the PS3 (and is losing $200 on every console because of it) is in hopes of winning the BluRay/HD DVD format war. Due to Sony's placement of BluRay drives in the PS3, there are now 4 Blu Ray players on Earth for every 1 HD DVD player. Sony's SCEA has already lost $400m since the PS3's launch because most people don't want to pay for all of the tech in the PS3, many are saying it is what will determine if Sony stays around for the long run or not (the betamax battle x10). If Sony wins this format war, the money they make in game/movie disc licensing fees will be in the billions. Licensing fees make money.

 

[greenparty]

Those US phone operators sound crazy! Here in Ireland I buy €20 a month pay as you go credit and get unlimited free texts to other phones on the same network and i get to keep the credit to do whatever i want with. Since everyone I know is on the same network as me its great. This is normal over here and I don't have to pay to recieve calls or texts or anything crazy like that and we get 99% coverage of he whole island!

Weird the iPhone was made in America where your mobile networks seem so backward....

 

[NNO-Stephen]

they do have some companies (Sprint) with unlimited incoming calls on some plans.

but we also have some flat out badass plans too. just not on cingular.

Cingular charges WAY too much for data and for minutes. their SMS options aren't great, but nobody has great SMS options. on some carriers you can get that for a reasonable price too though, but all of them count a received and sent SMS/picture/whatever the same because they love double-charging consumers over here.

but again, don't go confusing Cingular with the best we have to offer. Sprint has way better prices for minutes and data than cingy will ever hope to offer. and they have a pretty large EV-DO network too while Cingy is just beginning to slowly roll out HSDPA.

 

[SeaFox]

they do have some companies (Sprint) with unlimited incoming calls on some plans.

Yes, I was going to bring that up. There's also a small company called Cricket that offers unlimited minute plans. My friend I mentioned earlier is with them now, which is good as he got into some bad billing trouble when he had Sprint. So I'm very hopeful we are starting to see a turnaround in the U.S. cellphone industry.

 

[SeaFox]

Yeah and all of this makes me curious about how Apple are going to sell the iphone here. If you're on a pretty expensive monthly contract, don't most people expect the phone to be free (or if it's a high end phone then at least cheap as it's being subsidized heavily by the phone company?)

I think that's part of what keeps the U.S. wireless carriers in control. People pay so much for contracts, and their phones are locked, so they take the free/cheap phones. These pieces of junk break and so they have to extend their contracts to get a replacement unless they paid for insurance. The result is consumers are rarely able to get in a position where they can change carriers if they get fed up with their current ones unless they pay a hefty fee.

 

[brepublican]

Yea, in the US you usually pay the same price for receiving and sending calls and text messages. I prefer the European model too.

Yup, its pretty F**ked up...

But let's hope this is true. This might just be the best news since... best news ever. Period

 

[DMann]

iPhone unlocked

Not as appealing as selling it unlocked to begin with. Visual voicemail may require some special setup with Cingular, but other than that, does the iPhone have any other features that require Cingular? No.

So now you have to ask yourself, is Visual Voicemail worth changing carriers over?

If AT&T is offering 1.5 yrs. free service with purchase, then yes,
it will be well worth switching over to AT&T.

 

[DMann]

Text messaging

Yup, its pretty F**ked up...

But let's hope this is true. This might just be the best news since... best news ever. Period

What a racket texting has become -- a wind fall for wireless companies
and a two-way extortion for consumers.

 

[greenlover7777]

that would be awsome
that would be lots of $ that i would save
=]

 

[BigPrince]

I've come to the sad conclusion that they could charge an arm and a leg and I would probably still get it.

 

[holamiamigos]

haha i wish

 

[macguysoft]

Is it possible that they are considering this change of price? I think we have more reason to believe that this is so than the latter.

 

[babyj]

Things like these and per-second billing used to be available to consumers who picked the right carrier. But the big guns in the U.S. wireless carriers got together around the end of the 90's and started swallowing up the little startups that introduced these features. Then they just dropped the plans and waited for people to migrate off the old contracts because they wanted new phones or changed carriers, ect.

Competition at its finest, eh?

Competition is still pretty good in the UK with 5 big carriers and a few smaller ones that use others bandwidth. Even better, if they charge too much then the EU and UK regulators come along and tell them to cut the prices themselves or they'll force it on them - this happened not so long ago with roaming and cross network calls.

 

[twoodcc]

well i hope this is true. it would be perfect, i've already got the plan in the ad!

 

[bretm]

Competition is still pretty good in the UK with 5 big carriers and a few smaller ones that use others bandwidth. Even better, if they charge too much then the EU and UK regulators come along and tell them to cut the prices themselves or they'll force it on them - this happened not so long ago with roaming and cross network calls.

And you think that's a "good" thing? Wow. You guys definitely have a different way of thinking on that side of the pond. Over here we let the free market decide what a service is worth, not some "regulator." I guess it's good for the people paying for the service, unless, as is most things regulated, the best people and companies aren't interested in providing the service because not enough profit can be made.

I'd love to work hard and own a huge corporation someday instead of working for one. But not if it's going to be regulated like that. Therefore, I'm not going to go out in the world and try to do a better job at said business. It's not worth the effort.

We have a few laws about monopolies and that seems to take care of any price gouging. If one company is charging too much then another one gets all the business. Simple enough.

 

[bretm]

What a racket texting has become -- a wind fall for wireless companies
and a two-way extortion for consumers.

So quit texting and actuall call. It's not a racket if you have a choice. Smart business I'd say.

It'll be included in regular plan prices sooner or later. In fact, it'll all be a flat rate in time.

 

[bretm]

I've come to the sad conclusion that they could charge an arm and a leg and I would probably still get it.

Sadly I'm in the same boat as well. You've got to have your vices and / or hobbies and macintoshes and good gadgets are mine.

 

[bretm]

they do have some companies (Sprint) with unlimited incoming calls on some plans.

but we also have some flat out badass plans too. just not on cingular.

Cingular charges WAY too much for data and for minutes. their SMS options aren't great, but nobody has great SMS options. on some carriers you can get that for a reasonable price too though, but all of them count a received and sent SMS/picture/whatever the same because they love double-charging consumers over here.

but again, don't go confusing Cingular with the best we have to offer. Sprint has way better prices for minutes and data than cingy will ever hope to offer. and they have a pretty large EV-DO network too while Cingy is just beginning to slowly roll out HSDPA.

Sprint also is by far the worst coverage and service. At least that's what I get from Consumer Reports.

Verizon was most expensive, ok cust service. Cingular most coverage, horrible cust service. Tmobile (generally 3rd in coverage, best cust service)

 

[DMann]

Texting

So quit texting and actuall call. It's not a racket if you have a choice. Smart business I'd say.

It'll be included in regular plan prices sooner or later. In fact, it'll all be a flat rate in time.

Thanks for the advice, however, I do call, and hardly text for
that matter. There are circumstances, however, when calling is
not appropriate or possible, i.e. during a seminar, conference,
or meeting, a quiet setting, etc.

Flat rates for texting have been available for some time. I still feel
that texting should not be charged simultaneously to both the sender
and receiver. With wireless rates as high as they are, such a menial
service ought to be included, or at least better subsidized....

 

[metfuel]

for those of you who are calling this fake i was a member of pineconeresearch for a longtime and they are not fake and they don't solicit you by email, for you to sign up for their surveys. the only way you can become a member is if you find one of their banners on a website.

i have tested products and been asked questions about many products that are not yet released. I got paid for answering these questions anywhere from $5-$75.

These people are the real deal. Yes The image was thrown together but it was just for the survey. By the way i was also present when someone was taking this survey. Its real deal with it, and just be happy you dont have to pay the price they were asking.

 

[Timo_Existencia]

Why pulled?

I'm curious as to why this information was pulled? Arn? Can you chime in here?

As I understand it, people were reporting on a poll that was administered to them in public. Or, did people have to sign an NDA prior to be give the poll?

 

[Sweetfeld28]

I thought it was fake when i initially saw the ad on engadget's website last week.