All the little blurbs I’ve heard about the new iPhone 3G made me want it badly. The “old” iPhone rocked, and the new one adds GPS, upgrades to 3G, and… something else, I think. And it’s supposed to be sold for $199.
The problem is that AT&T’s page has this little asterisk saying “For qualified customers,” which Ars Technica suggests may refer only to those who already own iPhones, and the rest of us start at $399. They don’t tell us that, though.
It’s also been widely reported that they raised the plans $10, but what I hadn’t seen before is that they also removed text messaging from the plan, so you have to pay extra for that.
This really aggravates me, to the point that I think I might just refuse to go along with it. The old iPhone plan was expensive but worth it. But now they’re jacking the price up and removing features?
And does anyone else think it’s preposterous that I could call someone and talk for quite a while, tying up a “whole” channel (or time slice) on them, or download hundreds of megs, for free, but to send a 160-byte message will cost something like 20 cents? They’re charging the most for the thing that costs them the least.
It’s really no different than on the Internet, really: imagine using Skype for VoIP, e-mail and web-browsing, and IM. And your ISP allows you 450 minutes on Skype, unlimited web-browsing and e-mail, but charges you 20 cents for every IM you send or receive. It uses the least bandwidth, but gets prohibitively expensive.
That alone annoys me, but the fact that they dropped the included text messages from the plan at the same time that they hiked the price seems like pouring salt in an open wound. I’ve been eying the Blackberry Curve [WARNING: Site makes sound.] anyway. Not nearly as good as the iPhone, but maybe the company won’t spit in my face when I’m interested in buying it.
Okay, Verizon’s Blackberry plans start at $80 and AT&T doesn’t even show their pricing (???)… But T-Mobile has a nice Blackberry plan with 1,000 minutes and unlimited text/data for $60/month.
AT&T’s unlimited data for the BlackBerry goes for $30 a month. I’m probably going to switch to them no matter what, because T-Mobile has virtually zero service here at our apartment.
Now, on the Bold:
AT&T should be getting it in August. Their model has support for 3G data (HDSPA), so it should be pretty zippy from a web perspective.
T-Mobile is getting it in September, but their model only has EDGE support (slow data). On the plus side, their data and voice plans are a whole lot cheaper.
The unit is currently delayed (RIM will tell you otherwise, but it was supposed to be out…now-ish) due to battery life and overheating issues. Hopefully, they’ll get everything ironed out by August!
I’m torn on the whole iPhone vs. Bold issue as well…on one hand, the iPhone has all of these awesome applications and it’s way more of a “consumer” device. However, I love my BlackBerry, and the hardware keyboard is so nice…decisions, decisions…
I just realized that you mentioned the Curve instead of the Bold. 😛
lol, I was wondering what you were talking about. 😉
When it comes to you and the iPhone, it seems like it’d massively overlap your iPod Touch, no? I have to admit that I’m still not totally comfortable with the idea of moving to a phone with no tactile feedback, and Blackberries are supposed to be right up there with Treos in that regard.
Apparently Sprint has a referral plan that offers 500 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited data, and unlimited SMS messages for $30/month. You need a referral from a Sprint employee, but they’re allowed to refer as many people as they like. (And there’s an email address easily found on the web that’ll work.)
http://delivery.sprint.com/m/p/sprint/epc/epclanding.asp