vB Easy Archive - Suddenly the hot new iPhone3G isn't so hot?

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Suddenly the hot new iPhone3G isn't so hot?
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Posted by: termite

If you think about it, the new iPhone isn't really all that great. I was originally looking forward to its release, but once all the information started coming out, it doesn't really seem like a good deal. Sure it's $200, but look what else happens:

$200 with a 2 year contract. So obviously the phone won't be the $200 if you already have a contract?
3G = $30/month, not $20 (according to what I read on macrumors).
Hardware-wise, the only noticeable upgrades you get are the gps + longer lasting battery ...oh and plastic cover. Who can forget that, right?

Yes, I know that no one's forcing me to buy it... Opinions?

Posted by: BeyondTheTech

Don't forget, it's $30 a month PLUS a text-messaging plan. You're gonna need one.

Posted by: termite

the new plan doesn't come with the 200 texts? what the hell?

Posted by: toomer

Quote:

Originally Posted by termite

the new plan doesn't come with the 200 texts? what the hell?

Correct.

You know what else doesn't come with texts? The existing data plans that you might have for a Blackjack, an 8525, etc.

Basically, AT&T put the iPhone on-par plan-wise with every other smartphone in their lineup. Isn't the standard PDA plan already $29.95 anyway? And that doesn't include texts either, does it?

(I tried to look this up on AT&T's site, but it's acting flakey at the moment and won't let me put a plan in the cart)

Posted by: mobil1

This is how AT&T is recovering for the subsidy... $10 data plan increase ($240 over 2 years), plus text plan monthly charge... that more than makes up for the $200 price drop on the iPhone.

Posted by: FTR79

If you don't want the contract, which I don't blame you being AT&T, could you buy one from an APPLE Store and Unlock it? I know you are with AT&T already, but if it is unlock it should just work with puting you sim in it and not going through iTunes as if you were from Alltel or T-Mobile correct? That way you avoid the contract or upgrading you iPhone data plan, you would just have to maybe adjust the settings. Everyone knows how easy it is to get credits from AT&T where the customer rules

I did customer serive for the SE region so I know lol.

Posted by: xtrafile

That's why I never got the iPhone and probably never will. $200 for the phone, and this huge plan. My tip: Make the price competitive with other phones and I'll take it.

It's way overboard (still) for a phone...

Posted by: CocheseUGA

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtrafile

That's why I never got the iPhone and probably never will. $200 for the phone, and this huge plan. My tip: Make the price competitive with other phones and I'll take it.

It's way overboard (still) for a phone...

The thing is - it IS competitive with the WM phones AT&T has - namely the Tilt. Same data plan price, same lack of messages, comparable phone price.

I think people have holed themselves up in this forum for a year and not seen how we were *****ing about how iPhone users got the best end of the deal with the $20 data plan. Now it's on par with everyone else.

Posted by: chris7b

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtrafile

What are you saying. Thats what they did. A smartphone/PDA phone will set you back that much with any carrier. Data plans start at 30 for most carriers as well.

Posted by: flyingdutchman

You know I think AT&T may have screwed the pooch on this one. I was perfectly willing to buy two iPhones as of yesterday and extend the contract on both of my lines for 2 years, but with all of this nickel and dime crap, I am thinking my old iPhone is lookin pretty darn good.

Also, Engadget is saying this (my emphasis):

Quote:

Will it be available as a Gophone (prepaid service)?
"No, only available with a two-year contract." Pretty cut and dried there. We're also told that there will be no contract-free price on postpaid service; the one and only way to get in on this action will be to re-up your commitment to AT&T. Unofficially, we've been slipped information that AT&T's typical upgrade eligibility rules apply when signing the new contract, and there will be a separate (read: higher) pricing scheme for "non-qualified upgrades." These prices have not yet been set.

That kinda sounds like $199 may not be everyone's price. There is no way I will pay more for this phone than others simply because I am under contract. I already payed $399 for a phone that tacked on a two-year contract. They must be $199 for everyone and this is just a misunderstanding,

It seems as though for AT&T, the first iPhone was the honey to bring in the flies and now iPhone 2.0 is the swatter.

Posted by: Jammin72

It's only worth the Upgrade if you use the Data aspect of the phone frequently. The 3G is worth it if you have access to the network. If you're a Wi-Fi warrior and don't really use the data access otherwise I'm not too sure why you would jump on the upgrade wagon till you become phone eligible, which is what... a year on the contract. GPS could be cool but find me on Google Maps would be enough for me personally. I think they're trying to improve their market share not completely revolutionize the product at this point. He did mention significant sound quality improvement which tweaks my ear but I can wait till all the fuss settles down.

Posted by: toomer

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jammin72

It's only worth the Upgrade if you use the Data aspect of the phone frequently. The 3G is worth it if you have access to the network. If you're a Wi-Fi warrior and don't really use the data access otherwise I'm not too sure why you would jump on the upgrade wagon till you become phone eligible, which is what... a year on the contract.

This raises an interesting question in my mind. Now that we're paying the "real" "PDA" smartphone plan prices -- would tethering now be acceptable to AT&T?

If so - and if someone can develop an app like WMWiFiRouter for sale via the App store - I'd totally buy a 3G iPhone for when I'm on business travel.

Heck, I'd even manage with USB tethering for starters, if it was allowed.

But that's a lotta "IFs" ...

Posted by: CocheseUGA

Quote:

Originally Posted by toomer

No, because tethering isn't allowed with the $30 plans. That's a $60-$70 plan, IIRC.

Posted by: usrbin

i think the iphone 2.0 is in response to AT&T whining about revenue sharing and all those unlocked phones, this was put out to appease them. I believe all the great things will not happen until the 3rd hardware release. There is still no MMS or cut/paste, what kind of business smartphone does not cut/paste. This is not the blackberry killa, iPhone 3.0 is the one i'll save my money for.

Posted by: toomer

Quote:

Originally Posted by CocheseUGA

No, because tethering isn't allowed with the $30 plans. That's a $60-$70 plan, IIRC.

Really?

I seem to recall that my BlackJack I had a tethering app already installed (via USB or Bluetooth) when I got the unit direct from AT&T. Might have been called "Internet Sharing", IIRC? And my data plan at the time was $29.95.

Maybe some things have changed in the last year I was unaware of - but I thought that tethering was not prohibited on phones like the BlackJack.

Posted by: crantree

AT&T's tethering policie is a little out there anyway. I had a 45 minute argument with one of their tech guys about how they determine whether or not somebody's tethering or someones just using a large amount of data over there phone. The tech went on to try and tell me that there were 2 types of Megabytes!!

Posted by: FTR79

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtrafile

Huge plan! My I wish Canada's were that cheap. Try paying $80 and only getting like 100 MB of data. We don't even offer unlimited yet for PDA's, Blackberry's or anything. For data plans, AT&T has it cheap. I would love to pay only $39.99 for my Palm 750 to have unlimited data.

Posted by: wolfen42

Yeah... You could be stuck on verizon where unlimited data is $50 a month... sigh...

Posted by: CocheseUGA

Quote:

Originally Posted by toomer

No, tethering is not allowed unless you are on a tethering plan, regardless of what's on the phone or not.

People get away with it, but they do so at their own risk.

Posted by: AU_rulz

Quote:

Originally Posted by FTR79

Um, not sure if you were aware, but Bell just recently introduced an unlimited data plan for $30/month. That seems pretty damn good to me. On my BB, I pay $15 unlimited email and use the loophole to make it unlimited browsing too. I really don't find that prices are that high. In fact, this ATT plan seems high to me... It's on par with Bell here and I always thought that the US had cheaper data rates...

bope.

Posted by: tamaraa

Basically no matter what anyone says you are paying $39 dollars more for this one than you did for the original. They got you with the 2 year contract and $10 extra a month for the data plan. Which is an extra $240 for the 2years added on to your cost making it $439 for the 8gb and $539 for the 16gb...

Posted by: wookiee2cu

I asked my buddy who works at AT&T about teathering and he basically said if you are doing it now and then and you are not downloading an obscene amount of data (like a movie) there is no way for them to tell and it shouldn't raise any flags on your account. If you do it every day and download quite a bit, you will probably get caught.

Posted by: FTR79

Quote:

Originally Posted by AU_rulz

I wasn't aware, I have Rogers, where their data plans are high. Hopefully they keep up with the plans, I used to have Bell and that was when their unlimited was like $100 I believe around a year ago.

Posted by: RF9

I for one did not buy the iPhone because it didn't have 3G or Exchange email push support.
The new 3G does this, so it now does what I want. And the cost of service is identical to what I'm already paying on Windows Mobile.
So from my perspective, the new 3G iPhone finally lives up to my requirements.

I will get one if I don't have to get the $45 business data plan to use a hosted exchange mail service (App River) for push mail and wireless calendar (we don't yet know if that's true.) If I do then forget it it, I'll stick with WM which lets me do this on the $30 PDA plan.

Posted by: dgold21

Wow, get over it already!

I've paid $40 a month (including text charges) for unlimited data on my BlackJack, then Tilt, for the last year and a half...if I get a 3G iPhone, my data plan costs at best will go down, at worst will stay the same, which pleases me.

Either pay it or don't, I don't think they care...as a matter of fact, go ahead and take a stand, don't pay it...the less of you people on the 3G network, the better for me and others who prefer the flexibility.

Posted by: JonnyBruha

I've been paying $15/month for unlimited MediaNet/3G which also allows me to tether... Even jumping to $20 wouldn't be worth it, much less $30.

Posted by: superlatives

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jammin72

It's only worth the Upgrade if you use the Data aspect of the phone frequently. The 3G is worth it if you have access to the network.

Jammin:

That's NOT true. A 3G handset also gives you "3G voice". The quality of #G voice is almost that of a landline.

In addition to an iPhone, I also use a Nokia N95 8GB and a RAZR2 V9. Nowadays I RARELY use the iPhone because vI'm too used to the clarity of 3G voice.

In fact I was telling "Symbian Guru" that IMO it's not worth the price to "upgrade" to ANY handset that doesn't have 3G -- SOLELY for 3G voice.

Anyway, you'll get MUCH better voice quality on a 3G handset.

ASSUMING you're in 3G coverage.

Posted by: pachi

The reason why i buy unlocked phones.

Posted by: RussPath03

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonnyBruha

I've been paying $15/month for unlimited MediaNet/3G which also allows me to tether... Even jumping to $20 wouldn't be worth it, much less $30.

Illegally yes.....

Posted by: samab

Quote:

Originally Posted by usrbin

i think the iphone 2.0 is in response to AT&T whining about revenue sharing and all those unlocked phones, this was put out to appease them. I believe all the great things will not happen until the 3rd hardware release. There is still no MMS or cut/paste, what kind of business smartphone does not cut/paste. This is not the blackberry killa, iPhone 3.0 is the one i'll save my money for.

By the iphone 3.0 release, Apple would have released mobileme 2.0 --- in which you can't do a single thing with the iphone without paying the $99 annual subscription fee.

Posted by: JonnyBruha

Quote:

Originally Posted by RussPath03

Illegally yes.....

There's nothing illegal about it. AT&T doesn't think I have a smartphone. I specifically asked if I needed a larger data package with my phone and I was told no by several reps. I don't hear the police banging down my door to lock me up for stealin' their internetz.

Posted by: Cuthroat

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeyondTheTech

Don't forget, it's $30 a month PLUS a text-messaging plan. You're gonna need one.

Are you serious??? They up'd the price and took away the 200 text messages WOW..

Posted by: RogerPodacter

Quote:

Originally Posted by RussPath03

Illegally yes.....

yeah, i've been tethering on the 20 dollar plan now for about 2 years. shhh

Posted by: keggo

So, what does that mean for those of us that have the 1st gen Iphones when our contracts are up? Will we continue with our current pricing or what?

Posted by: superlatives

Quote:

Originally Posted by keggo

So, what does that mean for those of us that have the 1st gen Iphones when our contracts are up? Will we continue with our current pricing or what?

Yes.

Once ANY contract is up, your account becomes a "month-to-month", with EXACTLY the same features and price.