Post by Peter LeePost by David KennedyDavid Kennedy
Post by David KennedyPost by David KennedyDavid Kennedy
Post by David Kennedyo2 and Apple are selling the new iPhone at £269 in the UK as they say
they will not subsidize customers.
Fair enough, no one wants subsidies.
It does raise some interesting questions though...
a) if it is not subsidised then why do I pay the same rate for phone
calls as if I'd received a free or subsidized hand set ?
b) If there is no subsidy then why can't I decide what network to use it
with ?
Both very good points, the more I see or read about this phone the less
I want one, especially as it appears O2 is going to roll out the
unlimited data and free wifi for its "normal" contracts.
I'd like the phone but I don't see why I should pay full price if I'm
then going to have to subsidize both O2 and Apple.
Oops - sent too soon!!
An iPhone , with an 18 month contract giving 'unlimited data', 200
minutes and 200 texts per month, and free access to 'The Cloud's WiFi
network will cost £899.
A Sony Ericsson P1i with the same sort of contract (except The Cloud)
would (according to the carphonewarehouse), costs £25/month for just the
calls & texts, and £99 for the phone, totalling £549. Add £3 per
megabyte for data, and monthly access to a WiFi provider (£8/mo?), and
you'll soon get up to £899.
Maybe but my point is that regardless, I want a combined phone _and_
iPod but am not prepared to pay out the thick end of a grand for it.
Post by Peter LeeAlternatively, an N95 on T-Mobile, with it's Web'n'Walk, on a FlexT plan
(450 minutes OR 900 texts (or 225/450) would cost a total over 18 months
of ..... wait for it....£850. And you still don't get any WiFi hotspots.
Looking at those figures, I'd happily pay an additional £50 to get the
WiFi access and an iPhone over the period.
Happily ??? You would be happy knowing that O2 are charging you over the
odds for calls and that Apple are taking a cut ? Do you go into Tesco
and pay them 2 pence for their penny buns ?
Post by Peter LeeIf you want the next package up, it's £1079 for the iPhone and £895 for
the N75. So now you're paying £184 for the iPhone and the WiFi access
(which is priced at £126 for 18 months).
I still don't see it as being that much worse than any other deal around
at the moment. but YMMV!
My present deal is the T-Mobile Flex deal they had running in January
which gave me a Samsung D900 for 15 quid a month. Most months I don't
get close to using the full allowance.
Paying the bills myself, thrift is the word here.
If people are stupid enough to pay full price for a phone _and_ then pay
the full whack for calls as well then that's up to them. Likewise if
they want to pay Apple a royalty on every call they make...
Me, I'll give it a miss until I can get it sim free after Christmas.
--
David Kennedy
http://www.anindianinexile.com