I’ve been thinking about whether the iPhone 3G is worth it. Right now, the wife and I both have BlackBerrry Pearls. T-Mobile has this great plan where you get email only for an additional $10 per line (we’ve found that the data speeds on the T-Mobile EDGE network in NYC are too slow so we don’t want the data anyways). So in total, we pay $95 per month (included taxes and fees) for 2 lines of shared 700 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, and BlackBerry email.
If we switched to the iPhone 3G, it’d be about $140 per month for the same plus data. So basically the iPhone experience + data is going to cost us an additional $45 per month over what we have now. Is it worth it?
I think home internet connections are going to become less important as mobile data networks become faster and more robust so maybe it’d be a step of faith in technology to get the iPhone and maybe even get rid of the home internet connect but I can’t imagine doing that at this point.
If you think the iPhone’s features add an extra $45 worth of value per month for two people (and not just in a way where it’s like “oh, it’s sorta cool I can do X now” but more of how it adds *real* productive value to your life), please comment and make your case. I’m all ears.
Comments 3
it is not worth it. first, you’ll be bound to at & t (which totally had a massive failure that day and the day after) for like 2 years, WITH new phones.
pearl is already old. get curve. i’m very satisfied with how FAST it’s been (also has built-in wi-fi, which also helps anywhere with a T-mobile wi-fi, like border’s & starbuck’s).
the more i play with other people’s iphones (new and old), the more i realize how that’s essentially a toy phone, and not really written/text communication friendly (takes too long to type on it). so it’s great if you don’t do much text’ing or e-mail, but just browse web, play texas hold’em (graphics on that is phenom!), etc. etc.
an e-mail junkie like me cannot deal with how slow you have to “touch” each letter screen on iphone.
Posted 16 Jul 2008 at 5:55 pm ¶yeah, i think the most important thing for me is email and since typing is not as fast on the iphone, it might not be a good fit for me. if i don’t get an iphone, i might not upgrade until next year when my contract is up.
Posted 17 Jul 2008 at 8:33 am ¶You see the Mossberg review on WSJ, 7/9/2008.
he says 2 biggest hidden costs are:
He expects non-replaceable sealed battery used up more quickly given 3G’s higher power demands.
ATT (exclusive for iphone 3G) has increased unlimited data costs by $10 per month. To get the 200 dollar saving on the phone, you have to sign up for a 2 year contract typically, so that comes out to more than an offset of 24*10=240
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121555740704037313.html
I am not an avid ATT customer….I have never experienced more dropped calls since I switched. Ironic because their commercials brag of having the fewest dropped calls. If you read the fine print, they are just adding up the number of dropped calls and this is less than Verizon for example, but as a percentage Verizon is much more reliable because the network is much larger.
I say you are better off with RIM? Although I do know you like your tunes
Nathan
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 4:19 pm ¶Post a Comment