Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler I've never wanted an iPhone more

That'd be cool if it was high on the doodadery scale without the monthly payment thingy.

I was hoping it would have GPS navigation functionality. It can use wifi to figure out your location, but that's not as helpful.

Yeah, it does everything but GPS and cell phone functions (SMS/phone).

They have to save a couple of functions to entice people to buy the phone over the Touch. It's the sheer extra cost of the iPhone vs. the Touch I can't figure out, surely the phone/GPS capabilities do not cost that much to produce.

It's not really that much more expensive on the hardware side. It's the data plan that kills you.

I think Jay's point is that while a 16GB iPhone and a 16GB Touch both cost $299, the iPhone requires a 2-year agreement. AT&T will sell you a 8/16gb iPhone with no contract, but I think it's $499/$599. You can't tell me (or Jay) that the GSM radio & GPS chip doubles the cost.

I agree that if you're coming from a non-data cell phone plan, iPhones are more per month. But they're not when compared to every other PDA-centric device from any other manufacturer on any other carrier. People complain about the iPhone's data plans being expensive because they're not used to the fees that carriers charge for data on a PDA phone. The iPhone is not special in this regard. And really, they're not that much more than a 'normal' phone with a data plan. Do the math...

• A 450m/month plan on AT&T is $40/month. Regardless of whether it's a free & simple 'normal' phone, a Blackberry, or an iPhone. $40/month.
• The iPhone's data plan is $30/month.
• A 'normal' phone's unlimited data plan (which gives you WAP pages - yay) is $15/month.
• 200 Text messages cost $5/month on either.

So the cheapest iPhone plan is going to run you $75/month; 450m, unlimited data, 200 txt messages. The same plan on a free 'normal' phone will cost you $60/month. 450m, unilimted data, 200 txt messages. You can scale the minutes or text messages up or down as much as you want. The iPhone is always $15/month more than the 'normal' phone.

I would definitely say that the connected usefulness of my iPhone is worth an extra $15/month compared to what internet browsing and email (never mind everything else, like streaming radio, etc) is like on a 'normal' phone.

And if you compare the iPhone plans to Blackberry, Palm, or WindowsMobile plans, they're exactly the same. Unlimited data, +$30/month. 200 text, $5/month. You're always going to pay that.

And if you get a Gen1 iPhone, the data plan is only $20/month, and that *includes* 200 text messages. Making it the same price per month as a simple phone w/ a data plan + text. $15 less than all of the other PDA-phones.

Now we can certainly argue that AT&T's rates are too high in general (indeed, charging for text messages is stupid, as SMS messaging is part of how GSM phones work), but that problem is not unique to the iPhone.

You make a good point. I suspect the Touches may be subsidized by iPhones or something like.

You could be right. I could also just be a marketing trick.

I know of two people who bought a Touch and were happy with it until they used an iPhone. And had a, "you mean it's just like my Touch *AND* it makes phone calls," moment and subsequently bought an iPhone. Double score for Apple.

You got my point Peter. And I like your point about Apple looking for extra sales with those that have a touch and then decide to 'upgrade' to the iPhone.

But an iPhone isn't for me unless I can pay that $200-300 (like a Touch) for it and go without a plan, I barely use 10 minutes/month. It would be nice to have all the features of the iTouch and my barely used cell phone all in one unit.

Well, looks like I might get my wish, hopefully this will trickle through to the plans up here.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15957-Prepa...ivestories_week

I have had a 16GB iTouch since they were first available. An iPhone would be my next choice. I'll have to wait for my Blackberry to crap out before investing in the iPhone. The iTouch is agreat device.