Why I'm not rushing to buy an iPhone


All the reviews of the iPhone that I've seen are basically positive. Most reviewers obviously love their new iPhones. A friend of mine who bought one reported that he likes it "quite a lot." Everyone agrees it could be improved in various ways, but that doesn't seem to curtail their enthusiasm for the device very much. Nevertheless, I'm not going to rush out and get one, and it's neither because I wouldn't like to have one nor because I'm waiting for version 2. It's the cost of phone service that is the stumbling block for me.

I know that AT&T's $60 per month plan for individuals is very competitive with the monthly options from other companies. The problem is that I consider all the monthly service plans from all the cell phone companies to be way too expensive.

I carry a cell phone from T-Mobile with a prepaid plan. The phone cost me $70, despite the fact that it has very few features, but I didn't sign a contract and I don't get a bill each month. In fact, I never get one. That's the reason I didn't get much of a discount on the phone. T-Mobile doesn't have a 2-year lock on me. I pay 10 cents for every minute I use the phone and that's all I pay. I gave T-Mobile $100 up front for 1000 minutes, which don't expire for 1 year. After 10 months I still have not used up the 1000 minutes. You see, I don't hang on the phone all the time. I use it when I really need it. The result is that I can carry a cell phone for much less money than an iPhone service plan would cost me.

Phones are not hard to find in the U.S. I have one in my office, paid for by my employer. I have a landline phone at home. I don't need to pay an additional $75 dollars per month to have access to a phone. If I really need to make a call when I'm on the go, I can do so for 10 cents per minute.

One of the nice things about monthly cell plans is that you get pretty much unlimited long distance service, especially if you're willing to talk at night or on the weekends. I have the same level of service all the time, if I can make the calls from home, because I use Skype from my home computer. With my Plantonics headset the quality is excellent. I have Skype's unlimited calling plan, which cost me $15 for the first year and lets me call anyone in the U.S. and Canada anytime, day or night. It is really rare when I need to make a long distance call from someplace other than my home, but when I need to do that, I use a phone card, which costs me 2-3 cents per minute.

So how can I justify paying $75 per month for cell phone service? The service I currently have is quite adequate for my needs and while it's not exactly free, it's pretty darn close to free on a per minute basis, averaged over all the calls I make.

Apple would stand a lot better chance of selling me an iPhone if the iPhone could run Skype over its wi-fi connection and if it didn't require activation with a cellular phone service. I would be even more likely to get one if I could use it with my prepaid plan from T-Mobile. But Apple is not content to make $330 profit selling me the iPhone. It also wants to make a cut of AT&T's on-going monthly service fees for the iPhone, which I'm not currently willing to pay.

Posted: Sunday - July 08, 2007 at 04:31 PM          

©