They retail here for around €400.00 which I think is around US$475.00. I see loads of you use them and was half thinking of buying one from the US online - but are they any cheaper?
Irishmam
OT: How much is an IPhone in the US and other parts of the world?
In the US, you can only buy an iPhone along with a 2-year wireless contract with AT&T. They are the sole provider of service for the iPhone and it’s locked to their network, so it can’t be used on other provider’s network. The cost for the 16GB 3GS is $199, plus a $70/month wireless contract and $170 fee if you cancel. It’s a bit of a racket, especially for those of us who do want to use AT&T.
I have an iPhone, but I unlocked it so I can use it on T-Mobile. It cost me a small fortune to purchase it and pay the activation fee and cancellations and first month of service. I try not to think about how much it cost, but it was probably close to $500.
AT&T keeps trying to get me to upgrade to an iPhone, but I only have a cell phone for traveling emergencies and calls while I am out and my husband forgets he wanted to tell me to get something at the market. Other than that it’s silent. I don’t text and I’m not a phone person to begin with. My son has an iPhone and he says the 3G cost him $258, but he was already with AT&T and just upgraded his service.
I think mine cost me $299, but that was with an upgrade, so they dropped the price about $100 for that. Seriously though, the phone isnt where they rape you, its the charges that go along with it. You have to buy an additional unlimited data feature that costs $30 a month per phone. Plus the actual phone service. In total, for my partner and I, we end up paying about $160 a month for our phone service.
Thanks guys.
I actually think we may have better deals here! I saw a promo brochure yesterday and to buy one pre-pay was down to €350.00 (About $400) without all the tricky tariffs. I am going to leave it for another while and save up - the price will keep on falling. In the mean time I have to try and resist that Kindle (ohhhh I want one!)
Gadget freak Irishmam
But have you checked in to the cost of the setup and monthly connection fees with your local mobile provider?
We’re looking at about $160/month to have any smartphone on Verizon as well (for the two of us). As much as I’d like the iphone* AT&T coverage in my area isn’t all that great, especially when you’re outside the city like we tend to be quite a bit. So we’ll probably go with the Motorola Droid.
- I use my ipod for all of my music in class - it beats carrying around the 200+ CDs I used to have. The only reason I would like the iphone is because we have docks set up just for ipods in every studio. I guess I’ll have to start carrying a y-cable with me if I don’t want to continue carrying a phone and ipod ;o)
My byf works for a mobile phone company - he thinks the iphone is overrated and over-hyped. When he interviews customers as to what they actually want to do with their phone they realise they wouldn’t use half the features or that another (cheaper) phone would do the job just as well. There are other phones out there with the same level of functionality but as they don’t have the “name” are cheaper. If you are on a contract then your network provider would be able to give you similar advise. Apple have set the price across all the providers, you only get a deal on some of them if you are paying more on your line rental etc so on the face of it a good deal might not be!
Our IT department was talking about the newest/latest innovations with us last week, and Google’s Android (“droid”) was well liked by their “techno-geeks” who were testing them. They were seen as a replacement for the Blackberries which are used a lot in my company. So if you’re really the gadgetfreak you say you are, you might want to look into this one.