Posts Tagged ‘n95’

Cost of an iPhone

Friday, November 16th, 2007

So I’ve been using my iPhone for about a week now. Its lovely. But this is about the cost.I was watching a video on YouTube about the iPhone making a deal about the overall cost. So I wanted to address the issues raised.

Contract Length - O2 require an 18 month contract. OH MY GOD! 18 Months? Now, I remember a few years back 12 month contracts were the main thing. Now, its extremely unlikely that you’ll get a 12 month contract. Go into any shop, or onto any website and the default option now is 18 months. So thats not a big deal. Get over it. (and Orange offer 24 months too)

Contract cost - 35 massive pounds per month. WOAH! Thats loads(!). Now I realise that that may be a lot for some people, but lets look at the other networks. Orange offer 7 contracts under £35 per month, 2 at £35 per month, and 4 over £35. In equivalent tariff would set you back at least £30 a month for the same or more texts and calls.

Data Package - On top of the basic cost you would have to pay data charges. For 200MB of data (the former limit on O2) you would pay an additonal £35! It costs £8 for 3oMB of data. So take into account that O2 is Unlimited and thats an infinite cost (only limited by your use)!

Wifi - The Cloud.net offers unlimited WiFi use for £7.99 per month. Its free for iPhone users

Handset Cost - OK you can get a free handset from most carriers, like the N95 (the most compared handset). Great. It plays music, videos, has GPS, 3G etc. I could get into that discussion but I won’t. iPhone costs you £269. Thats it. Its yours. If you cancel the contract, its yours. If you cancel any other one, you have to pay the rest of the contract. If you cancel within the 14 days you have to return your handset. Not with the iPhone. What about the features.Total

Costs

Non-iPhone handset Free
Contract £30.00 x 18 months
Data Use £35.00 x 18 months
Wifi £7.99 x 18 months
Total = £1313.82

iPhone £269
Contract £35.00
Data use Included
Wifi                                        Included
Total                                     £899

Now excuse my maths, but it would appear that a non-iPhone costs £414 LESS than a comparable option. lets also consider you want a full internet browser, photo browser, music player. You didn’t pay for your phone so you could buy an iPod Touch. Thats another £199 for 8GB. So the total is now £1512.

So there you go. Its not a bad deal. Its a GREAT deal, and you have a fantastic handset with a full internet browser, large screen for viewing photos, videos, maps, stocks, weather, calendar, and more. You get Visual Voicemail. No other network offers this. Random access voicemail is probably a key feature for people who get lots of messages, like sales people. A full web browser with an intuitive interface is fantastic. For that mobile, you might look at a Nokia N800 (£229).

Please, argue these points. Let me know your thoughts. Have I done the maths wrong? Am I overlooking something?

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iPhone, Edge, and Fort Augustus

Monday, September 24th, 2007

I managed to enjoy a week off last week as I spent the time in a lovely log cabin in Fort Augustus, Scotland [see Flickr]. While there, I managed to miss most of the excitement around the Apple event in London on tuesday. And the big news was the iPhone is coming to O2.
Now I’ve seen a fair bit of coverage since then, mostly bad mouthing the iPhone (or O2) an I have to weigh in.
Firstly, there are many points people keep missing.
1. £269 for a phone! Well its not just a phone. Its also a 8Gb iPod with widescreen video mode, it is a full internet browser, a PDA, a camera and of course a phone. So big deal. It costs more than the usual FREE that most UK phone buyers pay. Buts its more than that. A 8Gb iPod would set you back at least £180, and thats just a tiny screen, no decent video capability. So deal with it.
2. Its too expensive for most consumers. Are most consumers going to want an iPhone? Its price point puts it at the high end of the market, appealing to Mac lovers, iPod fanatics, and those on the bleeding edge. Nooone expects every Thomas, Richard or Harold to go and get one on launch day (9th November). Most consumers will either a) have a phone or b) not be that desperate to be on the front end to pay that much. Its like in the US. It cost more than most phones over there yet over 150k were sold in the first week alone!
3. EDGE? Why not 3G? Well I believe Steve’s justification being battery life. I have a 3G phone. When I’m online, the battery dies like a limp dear caught in the headlights of a very wide, fast moving truck. He said coverage is the other issue. While that is true in the US, its not so in the UK and europe. So people moan about the speed. So what is the difference? Well this:

3G - 50kbps (3g)
2.5G - 8-10kbps (EDGE)
2G - 5-8 kbps (GPRS)

I tested my N70 on www.dslreports.com/mspeed and got back 50kbits/sec, on full bars. So maybe its true, EDGE isn’t as good as 3G. But not every phone supports 3G. And not everyone is a heavy enough “mobile internet” user to even see the difference. I certainly don’t. That of course leads on to the internet. Its the FULL internet, not some hosed down version, where the alignment is awful, the photos don’t line up. But what about flash? Well my N70 doesn’t do flash. Nor does the N95, so what are you really losing? Nothing. And with the “unlimited” [via daringfireball.net] WiFi with The Cloud (which includes BT OpenZones so include loads of phoneboxes around the country) those full pages from NY Times or The Guardian will be there in no time.

So stop your moaning. If you don’t wanna spend £269 to have the most revolutionary phone in many years straight away, then go back to your Nokia 3210 and enjoy mono screens, 16bit sound, and no chance of the internet, youtube, google maps or this blog on your phone! Tell it to Fake Steve!

And where does my iPhone tale go? Well I’ll be queueing at the Bullring store for mine on iPhUK Day, for my EDGE loving, multi touching, widescreen ipod/phone/web browser/email client/camera/thing that will make people go “ooohhh can I play?” to which I’ll say…no.

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