The 3G iPhone
I’ve never tried to hide my dislike of Apple products, but I have to admit that the iPhone has piqued my interest on more than one occasion. I’m so sick of Windows Mobile (the OS my last two smartphones ran), that I’ve gone back to my Samsung A900 Blade while I wait for a decent Android-based phone to come out. Windows phones are slow and buggy, often requiring periodic powercycling in order to free up memory and regain lost performance. I have never encountered a Windows Mobile equipped phone that didn’t exhibit this behavior in some shape or form. This is the main thing that grabbed my attention when I first heard about the iPhone; the menus are smooth, and from what I can tell, the phone’s OS is rock solid.
So, which is the lesser of two evils — my contempt for Windows Mobile, or my dislike of Apple and their utter ripoff hardware pricing? Well, that’s really not an easy question to answer. Sadly, the iPhone is only available through AT&T in the US. I’ve had really bad experiences with AT&T’s customer service in the past, and I’m certainly not eager to leave Sprint for them. However, I decided to take a (somewhat) fair and balanced look at the new 3G iPhone, just for the heck of it.
First, there’s no way that AT&T can ever match Sprint on pricing. With my SERO plan, I’m currently paying $34 including taxes for 500 any time minutes, nights and weekends at 7pm, unlimited text / picture / video messaging, and unlimited data use. The cheapest plan at AT&T is a total ripoff; a whopping 450 any time minutes and 5000 night and weekend minutes for $40 / month + tax and made up regulatory fees. Mind you, that doesn’t include any messaging or data use. Unlimited messaging brings the monthly total up to $60, and the data plan AT&T forces you to get with the iPhone brings the total up to $90 before taxes. After taxes and all the made up fees that they tack on, the monthly cost is probably well over $100. Pitiful for a plan with only 450 any time minutes.
I can’t justify paying almost TRIPLE what I’m currently paying for my excellent (and reasonably priced) Sprint service, just so I can move into a locked down phone that I can’t even tether to my laptop without hacking some software. As much as I’d like to give the iPhone a chance, there’s just no way that I’d ever leave Sprint for AT&T. Yes, I could purchase an iPhone on the gray market and use it on T-Mobile, but their coverage is weak around here, and their pricing is just as laughable as AT&T’s.
So, unless a CDMA version of the iPhone surfaces, it looks like Apple won’t be getting any of my money.
Google — where are our Android phones?!
August 1st, 2008 at 4:17 pm
You don’t have to hack software to tether the iPhone to a laptop.
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