Subsidized iPad Sales Off to Slow Start in UK?

[mikechan1234]

just too expensive. simple

 

[Officer_m107]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148a Safari/6533.18.5)

It's the UK phone company's yet again being greedy.
I was looking at getting one from three ( who have the best tariffs ).
But it was the 24month contract that ultimately decided it's not a good deal.
If it had been 12 months with even a slight increase in iPad price, I would have snapped one up !

 

[acidfast7]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

The same thing would be true of iPhones if they were offered unlocked and without a data contract.

they are just about everywhere, just not in the states. in some countries, you can just buy the iPhone4 directly off of the apple website.

italy for example:

http://store.apple.com/it/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone

it germany/sweden it's slightly more tricky, but not so hard to buy an unlocked one without a contract

 

[roadbloc]

just too expensive. simple

This. Why pay more for less functionality than you can get with a netbook? It's just not worth it one bit. No-one wants ANOTHER monthly payment.

 

[0815]

Why on earth would anybody sign a 2 year contract for the subsidized iPad when the announcement of the iPad2 is just around the corner? Maybe they should offer a cheap upgrade option like "Buy the iPad1 now, get the iPad2 for $50", otherwise I don't see why anybody (who is somewhat informed what's going on in the Apple world) would do that ....

 

[SiPat]

I'm in the UK, bought my iPhone outright (factory unlocked) and have a pretty decent rolling contract with Orange (cross-network minutes + SMS + data capped at 750MB pmth) -- no fixed term contract for me as something like half the monthly subs usually goes towards the next phone upgrade and I have no intention of ever upgrading via the networks.

The amount of money I saved went towards a 64GB 3G+WiFi iPad and I have a 10GB £15 per month "contract" with 3 -- Orange charges £25 for the same data limit. I have never seen my iPad go below 4-bars but my iPhone on Orange constantly drops data connections.

 

[captain kaos]

Because people don't want to be tied down to a contract for 2 years?!

Exactly! People may do it for a phone, but to then ask someone to tie themselves down to another data plan on top of that, nope. The surprise is that the likes of orange, t mobile and O2 think people will fall for it.

 

[Tunster]

This. Why pay more for less functionality than you can get with a netbook?

What and pay for a sub-standard bit of plastic with an awful resolution and is dog slow because Windows is too powerful to last 6 months? Personally, no thanks.

The only portable laptop I'd go for is the Macbook Air. However, I cannot justify it's cost as I already have a 13" MBP and don't travel to any length or have any reason to use it.

As I see it, it's best to buy the iPad outright to suit the needs and do the same with whatever 1-month rolling contract or PAYG SIM for data.