AT&T To Offer No-Contract iPhone 193
rfc1394 writes "While the regular price of an iPhone is $199 if you take a 2-year contract with AT&T, if you're willing to pay a lot more you can get one without a contract. An article in InfoWorld mentions that 'Freedom will come with a price — $599 for an 8GB device and $699 for a 16GB — but this will mark the first time consumers in the United States are able to buy an iPhone without being tied down to a two-year contract. The phone probably would still be locked for use only on AT&T's network, said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. But buyers could choose a pay-as-you-go plan for voice service.' The question still remains, does it make any sense to pay that much for a phone that is still locked to AT&T's network even if you aren't bound to a contract?" Update: 07/05 18:21 GMT by T : An anonymous reader suggests that there is a convoluted but possibly cheaper route to an new, unlocked iPhone.
This is a response to iPhone unlocking... (Score:5, Insightful)
Still locked? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is a response to iPhone unlocking... (Score:4, Insightful)
What if the phone gets "stolen"?
Why buy an iPhone (Score:2, Insightful)
iPhone- future of computing or just a phone (Score:2, Insightful)
New 3G Data plan is $30/month (Score:5, Insightful)
Just FYI... the new data plan with AT&T is $30/month while the old plan (Edge) was only $20/month
SO with the new phone you're already paying $120/year more than previous... which means people are actually paying more money over the 2 year period... $199 + $240 (2 year contract) = $459
Re:Why buy an iPhone (Score:4, Insightful)
Because there's something to be said for having walk-in support at the Apple store, the Apple user interface, access to the app/music store... shall I go on? People buying an iPhone likely aren't buying it based on specs.
Re:Why buy an iPhone (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the software is shit? No one can even make the example videos of it look like its decent. I expect my phone not to lag, have you seen OpenMoko in use? Its a joke.
I know I'm going to be modded as a flame, but seriously, no one who wants a phone to USE will want OpenMoko. It looks cool as hell from a developer/hacker point of view, one of the guys I work with ( who loves his windows mobile phone, heh ) intends to order one to play with, but he just replaced his old phone with another Windows Mobile phone so he had one that actually worked along side the OM phone he hacks around on.
But ... no one who just wants a usable phone wants to deal with an OS thats ... pre-alpha at the very best, and will come with absolutely 0 support from your carrier.
The people who will buy an OpenMoko device are developers, not users. The people who buy an iPhone are users who don't want to be developers to know how to use their phone. They just want a phone thats intuitive and works.
These two devices do not in any way target the same market at this point in time.
No thanks (Score:2, Insightful)
Just ordered my FreeRunner. Yes, it's $400, and yes it doesn't work perfectly yet but it's a big step up from what I have now (no phone at all) and the approx $10/month I will make in calls will be just fine with T-Mobile's PAYG vs being locked into yet another telco service contract.
Re:Bad PR and no skillz (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a comparable price with a high-end Blackberry, Treo, or HTC, and those sell just fine in the US market. It's not riding coach, but it's not riding first class either. Expensive... but it's a smart phone, not a plain cell.
I don't use my cell much -- I could easily get away with 50 minutes a month. I don't text much. I don't need much data transfer since I'm usually have wi-fi access. But I love a PDA. Sticking the two together but letting me stay on a pay-as-you-go plan would be perfect -- it'd save a light user like me about a grand over 2 years ($70*12*2 + 199 vs. $15*12*2 + $599). They'd get one more hardware sale out of it. Win/Win.
Too bad Rogers isn't doing the same... yet. (Actually, I'm holding out for Android or the next OpenMoko... but still.)
Re:The summary is completely wrong. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I don't think so... (Score:5, Insightful)
They have a special iPhone section ((4) iPHONE TERMS AND CONDITIONS): Terms Applicable to AT&T Nation/FamilyTalk® GSM Plans: Credit approval required. Subscriber must live and have a mailing address within AT&T's owned network coverage area. An early termination fee applies if service is terminated before the end of the contract term. The fee will begin at $175 per device and decrease by $5 each month for the term of the agreement. If phone is returned within 3 days, activation fee will be refunded. If phone is returned within 14 days in like-new condition with all components, early termination fee will be waived. Service may be cancelled after 14 days but within 30 days and early termination fee will be waived, but equipment may not be returned. All other charges apply. Some dealers impose additional fees.
So they explicitly say that you can cancel the service between 14 and 30 days, avoid the early termination fee, but don't have to return the iPhone. As an aside, this section also implies that the "you may be required to return devices" in the other part of the contract indeed only applies to the first 30 day period, but the explicit iPhone section makes the various interpretations of the other section mute for this question.
So, we can buy the iPhone outright for $599/$699 or we can get a contract and cancel it after 14 days (but before 30 days) and pay a net of $235/$335. As my son would say Sweeeet.
Re:iPhone- future of computing or just a phone (Score:5, Insightful)
The iPhone is certainly not a general computing device. I love my iPhone, and I actually enjoy the iPhone SDK, but ... it will never replace my laptop when I want to get something done.
Typing on any phone sucks. Some suck less, but they all suck, even the ones with the keyboards that cover the full size of the phone ( HTC Tilt as an example ).
The iPhone does some tasks great. Its a good 'phone' imo. Its obviously a great iPod, some would argue that there are better portable audio players, but I've never used a non-iPod player so my opinion is obviously biased. Its not as good as my old Palm V or Windows Mobile devices for taking notes or managing tasks by a long shot, but it does the job well enough.
With the SDK release, it'll have a few cool/good apps for it come out soon, but its not a PC and never will be.
As far as Palm being great because of open development, this is a double edge sword. Do you know how many absolutely crappy palm apps exist? I'd guess about 10 crappy apps exist for every half way decent app. The advantage to making it 'harder' to developer for the iPhone is that in itself will weed out many of the crappy apps written by people who wont put much effort into it.
With Job's evil grip over apps with the AppStore and digital sigs, some types of malicious apps can be stopped as well.
The only apps that may not be released on the iPhone are ones with a GPLv3 or like license due to the retarded restrictions in it that are supposed to help support my 'freedom' to do what I want with the software, but ARE restrictions to what I can do with it. Any GPLv2 or BSD or (insert any of the thousand other sane distribution licenses here) will be available, if not by the original authors, by someone else who is part of the SDK program, someone will probably make a service for OSS developers who don't have the money to blow on the iphone dev program.
Even GPLv3 apps aren't ruled out. The original authors can do whatever they want with the software, they are not under the restrictions of the distribution license so they CAN release an iPhone version should they choose to, OR, they can grant someone else the right to do so.
BUT ... in all of these, 99% of the apps out there, don't belong on the iPhone. Its a phone/entertainment device, with some basic computing abilities, nothing more.
No pay as you go by my reading (Score:4, Insightful)
AT&T has explicitly said that even without a contract you still have a locked phone and the same choices for plans [yahoo.com] (i.e. minimum $70 a month +taxes and fees for voice/data, with no sms).
That doesn't sound like pay-as-you-go is allowed to me. Which is a shame, because if it was I might actually be interested. A $500 phone, $30 a month for data, and a hundred bucks for a year worth of minutes and SMSes is a better deal for me than a $200 phone plus $75+taxes+fees every month for more minutes than I use in a year.
AT&T needs to let people who don't use their phone as a phone that much buy what they want.
Re:Canadians (Score:3, Insightful)
All we need now are for some Canadians to reiterate how shafted they feel by their only GSM provider :)
Not just the monopoly GSM provider, but the CDMA providers as well.
Canada is in the dark ages when it comes to cell phones & service. The CEO of RIM (maker of the blackberry, a Canadian company) has said many times that the ridiculous prices of Canadian cell phone companies are impeding progress.
Canada has the highest prices in the western world when it comes to cell phones & service. As a result, just over half of the population has a cell phone. Compare with most of Europe when almost everyone has a cell phone.
The previous Liberal government fucked up big time when they allowed two big mergers (BC Tel with Telus, and Rogers with Fido), reducing the number of large providers from 5 to 3. Not surprisingly, prices went up quite a bit post-merger.
Canadian cell phone companies will whine and claim their costs are higher because Canada is such a large country with a small population. While that is true, the vast majority of the Canadian land mass has no cell phone service. The carriers are not incurring costs to provide service to areas of low population, they only provide service to cities & towns with sufficient population. As an example, Rogers (the only GSM carrier) provides service to about 2% of the land area of the province of Saskatchewan.
Canada's laws prohibit a foreign firm from operating a cell phone network. It's time to revisit this.
Re:New 3G Data plan is $30/month (Score:3, Insightful)
Just FYI... the new data plan with AT&T is $30/month while the old plan (Edge) was only $20/month
...and what's wrong with a 3G data plan costing more than a 2G data plan? I personally don't have an issue with paying more $ for a faster connection.
rediculous (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:New 3G Data plan is $30/month (Score:4, Insightful)
What's wrong is that it's simply too expensive. I'd like to get an iPhone 3G but there's no way I'm going to pay $70/month for a telephone. $60 was right on my threshold for buying, and $70 is just too much. It may be necessary, reasonable, or whatever, but from my perspective as the customer it's just too much money.
The cell phone situation in the US sucks pretty hard right now for a medium-light user. There's essentially no way to spend less than $45/month (including taxes) on a cell phone, even though I use perhaps 1/5th of my plan. Prepaid might save me a little money, but they don't get to be really sensible until you're calling much less than I am each month.
Re:iPhone- future of computing or just a phone (Score:3, Insightful)
Hey, that's paraphrasing me: Gates was brilliant to open development to all comers, but Jobs' need for control is crippling an otherwise highly advanced piece of electronics.
Re:Still locked? (Score:3, Insightful)
Indeed. If the manufacturer won't sell you a phone that hasn't been locked to a provider /in the first place/, don't buy from that manufacturer. There are other phones than iPhone -- some of them far more convenient or flashy. That's two of the three reasons for buying an iPhone -- the third is if you're a lemming.
I've bought my phones unlocked directly from the manufacturer. All features work, and I'm not fettered to a specific program on the computer, or subject to DRM.
Planless phones and unlocked phones are not the same as a lockfree phone.
Re:This is a response to iPhone unlocking... (Score:4, Insightful)
Can't say I wouldn't laugh, either - entering into an agreement with every intention of breaking it, and being willing to file a fraudulent police report just to save yourself some money? What a world class fucking citizen you are.
Re:$80 to cancel in Oz (Score:3, Insightful)
But in Australia, Apple fans are used to being bent over by Apple:
Blame it on shipping? No. Shipping from Asia to Australia is cheaper than to the US. Tariffs and taxes? Fifty per cent tariffs on this stuff? I think not. Apple just is quite happy to gouge the holy hell out of anything it can.
Re:No lock for no-contract phones (Score:1, Insightful)
It's a law that needs to be named...something akin to Murphey's law for technological restrictions.
Anything technological measure that artificially restricts the usage of a given item can and will be circumvented in under a month.
So if you buy the no-contract iPhone, they will be compelled to unlock it for you. It's just that they in this case does not refer to AT&T, it refers to iPhone hackers.
Re:I don't think so... (Score:2, Insightful)