Mass media catching on that new iphone IS NOT cheaper

[NT1440]

wow you really are amazing. we dont have an option to which service we subscribe to, apple gave us no options. we have at&t and that is it. so whatever at&t decides to do, it affects the OVERALL cost of the iphone. in this case, the cost of owning an iphone in america has INCREASED.

well thats because of a legal binding contract, not hate for consumers.

and the OVERALL price, isnt the cost of the phone, its the service which is completely separate, put them together if you want, but the price your actually paying for the physical phone is less.

owning the phone cost more yes, i never denied that, but buying the phone has not.

 

[gloss]

You misinterpreted me. I was saying that you don't need SMS now that the iPhone is getting IM since you can still text all your buddies that only have SMS using IM.

Oh. Heh. My bad.

 

[NAG]

Oh. Heh. My bad.

No problem, I said it really confusingly.

But yeah, there is no reason to get SMS. IM is superior.

 

[CrazEtooN]

What nobody seems to understand is that the $30 is not specifically tied to the 3G speeds.

For the love of God, why can't you understand that all At&t BlackBerry and PDA data plans start at $30 a month with NO text messages included?? The original iPhone received special data pricing because it was so expensive to buy and because there was a revenue share between Apple and At&t.

The revenue share is gone.

The price is now subsidized.

This means that the special treatment the previous iPhone got is gone. It is now being priced the EXACT SAME WAY as ALL their other smartphones and PDAs!!!!!!

If you have a BlackBerry Curve, there is no 3G for you because it is an EDGE only device. Guess what, $30/mo data plan, no texts included.

If you have the 3G capable At&t Tilt, there is 3G for if you live in a 3G area. Guess what, $30/mo data plan, no texts included.

If you have that same 3G capable Tilt and live in an EDGE only area, you can only use it over EDGE. Guess what, $30/mo data plan, no texts included.

THE PRICE IS NOT JUST TIED TO THE 3G!!!

This has become one of the most pathetic strings of complaints I have ever seen. Try to understand the following:

-iPhone releases in June 2007 for $599 and $499.
-Apple and At&t have a revenue sharing agreement, so Apple has more control over the plan pricing.
-Due to cost and said agreement, the phone is given a special break and is not put on a standard, $30/mo PDA data plan. It is instead given the same plan type as a normal flip phone. This plan is called the MEdiaMax plan, even though it is not branded as such for the iPhone. Look it up on At&t's website if you doubt this.

Fast forward a year

-iPhone 3G comes out on July 11th.
-iPhone receives subsidized pricing this time around.
-Revenue sharing agreement is gone. Due to this fact, and the subsidized pricing, At&t takes the iPhone out of the special data pricing bracket it formally was in and places it into the PDA bracket where it always should have been. Apple has no say over this because the revenue sharing is gone.

Are you getting this now? Can you see it?

Get over it. It is not the work of the devil. It is not Jobs trying to eat your soul. It is not At&t trying to steal your first born. It is simply At&t pricing the iPhone data in accordance with all their other PDA/smartphones.

The last point is that the negative press may actually cause a change before July 11th.

Just get over it already and see what happens. If you don't want to pay it, don't buy the damned phone.

 

[NAG]

I don't really care if they change the plan, I just want them to explicitly say what the plan is and what discounts will now apply. Keeping everyone in the dark is just leading to insane FUD.

 

[gloss]

What nobody seems to understand is that the $30 is not specifically tied to the 3G speeds.

/snip

Good post.

 

[superfula]

wat part of this arent u understanding. Do u subscribe to apples cellular service? oh thats right they dont have one, if u wanna get pissy get pissed at AT&T

Hey genius, the phone is subsidized. Meaning the increase in plan cost is due to the low price of the phone. I'm a fan of Apple, but holy crap man. Pull your head out of the ground.

 

[NT1440]

Hey genius, the phone is subsidized. Meaning the increase in plan cost is due to the low price of the phone. I'm a fan of Apple, but holy crap man. Pull your head out of the ground.

holy crap, ur paying AT&T not apple, and for the plan, the physical phone, less expensive, apple charges less and thats it. the rest of the money goes to at&T and for service, if you wanna say thats the price of the phone go ahead, but apple is making good on its statement.

 

[phinnaeus]

No problem, I said it really confusingly.

But yeah, there is no reason to get SMS. IM is superior.

Ok are you saying that I can send an AIM message to a phone number and it shows up as a text? I just wanna be clear.

 

[NAG]

Ok are you saying that I can send an AIM message to a phone number and it shows up as a text? I just wanna be clear.

Yes, you can send your phone an SMS message via IM (and the other way around too). Here's how!

 

[rywat]

I think the problem that people are having with them saying that the new iPhone is "cheaper" or "half the price" or whatever is they don't add "because it's now being treated like any other phone with the subsidy model. And by the way, the new data plan is $15 more, etc." The way they present it makes it seem like they magically found some way to manufacture the phone more cheaply, and are passing the savings on to us.

The simple phrase "half price" is misleading in this case because the phone is inextricably tied to the cell phone service. One is useless without the other.

An additional thing to consider is if there is not a special data plan for the iPhone, it will be very easy to put your SIM in a basic flip phone, switch your plan to the non-PDA data plan (which is exactly the same price as the current iPhone data plan) and then move the SIM to your new 3g iPhone, thus getting the cheaper rate anyway, and there is nothing ATT can do to stop it (that I know of). I suspect this course of action to become very popular in the coming months.

 

[netdog]

With 3G, they know you are going to use a lot more data. Surprise, surprise, you are going to pay for that. If you don't like it, stick with your old iPhone.

FWIW, the new iPhone is a great deal. Compare it to the rest of the Smartphone 3G market (phone + service) and you'll see just how ridiculous this thread is.

 

[admanimal]

The simple phrase "half price" is misleading in this case because the phone is inextricably tied to the cell phone service. One is useless without the other.

The nerve of them, making a cell phone that is useless without cellular service.

 

[mugwump]

The reason that the iPhone is more expensive now is because you don't have a choice when you purchase one -- you must pay the additional amount. It's not like they give you GPRS for free, EDGE at a nominal fee, and 3G for a higher fee -- which is then up to the consumer who may want a cheaper data option.

When you purchase an iPhone, you must purchase the 3G data plan. A 20% monthly increase is not an option, it's built in. At least, in the US it is.

 

[mkaiser1]

I don't understand the fuss...it IS actually cheaper overall...in the UK that is

...sorry...I don't mean to rub it in.

I actually don't understand the pricing over here either: I would quite happily have paid more for the device (and the contract) over here. I assumed the 16Gb would cost at least £200! As it is me and my gf are getting one each on a decently priced tarriff!

Incidently, my gf was going to get an iPod touch for her birthday at the end of the month (we were hanging fire for 3g iPhone news though), but surely iPod touches are now over priced? I know the iPhone has the contract to pay too, but most people (in the UK at least) would be paying for a mobile phone anyway, so why in the worl would anyone now buy an iPod Touch? Surely the price of these has to come down?

 

[ripkord]

its cheaper over here, for a change.

 

[alexboy45]

I don't understand the fuss...it IS actually cheaper overall...in the UK that is

...sorry...I don't mean to rub it in.

I actually don't understand the pricing over here either: I would quite happily have paid more for the device (and the contract) over here. I assumed the 16Gb would cost at least £200! As it is me and my gf are getting one each on a decently priced tarriff!

Incidently, my gf was going to get an iPod touch for her birthday at the end of the month (we were hanging fire for 3g iPhone news though), but surely iPod touches are now over priced? I know the iPhone has the contract to pay too, but most people (in the UK at least) would be paying for a mobile phone anyway, so why in the worl would anyone now buy an iPod Touch? Surely the price of these has to come down?

one good thing about living in the UK. the only problem is i am going to have to spend £59 on the 16gb. i think that is to expensive. they should pay me

 

[mkaiser1]

...I suppose our iPhones might be cheaper but the petrol/gas is cheaper in the US (despite their recent price increase) as is everything. The standard of living is far superior over there - everything (except iPhones it seems ) is cheaper over there and people generally earn more!

I really hope O2 call before 11th July - they better not balls this up!

 

[alexboy45]

...I suppose our iPhones might be cheaper but the petrol/gas is cheaper in the US (despite their recent price increase) as is everything. The standard of living is far superior over there - everything (except iPhones it seems ) is cheaper over there and people generally earn more!

I really hope O2 call before 11th July - they better not balls this up!

the fuel thing is correct we pay for petrol $10.30 a gallon and $11.37 for deisel. it cost me £63.70 ($124.41) to fill my car up with deisel yesturday and it was only 3/4 of a tank. still looking forward to my new iphone though. i will miss my first one. it has been good to me

 

[doobi18]

"How the half-price iPhone 3G actually costs you more" is the title of article on the front page of yahoo.com. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/94465;_ylt=AszBBwcIwJ6OnXPxgkUiaNwazJV4

I just don't understand how apple thought people were stupid enough to fall for this "we've made it affordable for everyone" crap.

easy: because people are that stupid. the wholw world is banging on about how cheap the model will be when in actual fact it workd out $40 more over two years

 

[netdog]

easy: because people are that stupid. the wholw world is banging on about how cheap the model will be when in actual fact it workd out $40 more over two years

If you want to get technical, the deferred nature of these payments makes the phone cheaper.

The fact is that the phone is cheaper and 3G service understandably costs more than EDGE as you are going to use a lot more of it.

 

[gloss]

If you want to get technical, the deferred nature of these payments makes the phone cheaper.

The fact is that the phone is cheaper and 3G service understandably costs more than EDGE as you are going to use a lot more of it.

Oh, pssh. Who can reasonably afford $40 over two years?

 

[zub3qin]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

how much is apple charging for the PHONE? $199, yes i forgot that in this world that is sumhow more expensive than 3/499.

The phone is not more expensive, you pay for it once and your done.

The service is a different story

um yea, too bad YOU CANT USE YOUR IPHONE UNLESS YOU SIGN A TWO YEAR CONTRACT. you have to factor in the increase in the contract price into the overall price of the phone.

yea so you can buy your $200 iphone and let it sit on your desk for 2 years and gather dust, because unless you activate it with at&t AND SIGN A CONTRACT, its worthless.

you can't let it sit on your desk for more than 30 days or else AT&T will be adding an additional "penalty" charge. They want it both ways.

 

[hashbrown]

So if the iphone is like any other phone on the AT&T network now, does that mean we get our corporate discounts back? Seems only fair. That alone would make up for the lack of txt messages and increase in price.

If not, then it's still being treated like a different beast and I say we flood some inboxes with requests for at least the 200 txt msgs back. I understand that 3G requires investment by AT&T and that we are probably going to be using up a ridiculous amount of bandwidth as soon as we get our hands on this puppy!

 

[tallyho]

I just don't understand how apple thought people were stupid enough to fall for this "we've made it affordable for everyone" crap.

Original iPhone 8GB: £269 + 18*35 = £899
3G iPhone 8GB: £99 + 18*30 = £639*

3G iPhone is significantly cheaper, so what on earth are you complaining about?

the cost of owning an iphone in america has INCREASED. HOW CAN YOU DENY THAT THE COST OF BUYING AND OWNING AN IPHONE IN AMERICA IS NOT INCREASED?

Ah. Land of the free, eh?


*(OK I've used the cheapest contract here, but it still comes with unlimited data, and unlimited free Cloud AND BT Openzone Wifi)