Apple working on a smaller, contract-free iPhone to combat Android - report

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  • Reply 41 of 132
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 7600/132 View Post


    The cheapest data plan is $15 per month, the cheapest voice plan is $40. Actually, they do have cheaper voice plans, but not for iPhone users. It's hard to see the data plan as the problem when voice is almost three times as expensive.



    That's true if you go with plans, but if you prepay, you can get by for far less. I use T-Mobile prepay for voice on my iPhone and the cost is running about $6 a month. I'd love to have a reasonably priced pay-per-byte plan drawing from that same prepay that'd let me check bus schedules at stops far removed from WiFi. I'd be even happier if the cheapness came from have a low-priority data feed. T-Mobile would save, since I wouldn't get data while any one with a fancier plan wanted it. I'd save money, since I don't care if I wait 20-30 seconds for that bus data. Win-win.



    The way to keep costs down with prepay is to divert longer calls to VoIP. I did use MagicJack, but I grew tired of fixing data corruption on the USB dongle every few months. I've shifted to Skype's call-out service. It's less than a quarter of T-Mobile's already cheap rates and I can also use the Skype app on my iPhone when I have access to WiFi. Overseas calls are cheap too. And if I later need to take incoming calls, I can have a local number almost anywhere I want.



    Michael W. Perry, author of Untangling Tolkien
  • Reply 42 of 132
    cpr1cpr1 Posts: 41member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cameronj View Post


    I don't understand. Why don't you just buy an iPhone at retail (or secondhand for $400) and slide in a SIM card without a data plan? You know you can do this, right? Something tells me you don't want to pay $700 for an iPhone. You want a $200 iPhone AND not have to pay ATT back for the subsidy.



    Prove me wrong.



    You can do this on Verizon?
  • Reply 43 of 132
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 2 cents View Post


    I went the shitty dumb phone (plus iTouch) route for a couple of years. Then I got an iPhone and I realized I was blowing smoke up my own ass. You can't compare so just save yourself the aggravation. First of all, shitty phones are an aggravation onto themselves. The gift that gives on giving.



    And think about it. $15/month for 3G everywhere you go is not bad. You don't have wifi in your car, or on a bus, or most places on the street. Even when you do find it, more and more want to charge you than they used to. Also, when you are somewhere without wifi, or your cable internet is down, you have a back up. Comcast has been working in our neighborhood for the last 2 months and our wired internet has been down for hours at a time on quite a few days. It's nice to still be able to get email, check the web, etc. (my wife and I work from home so it's more than a luxury). $15 doesn't buy much nowadays so it works for me. YMMV



    I think I will wait until Verizon allows a tiered data usage plan. Right now the $60 for the both of us isn't worth it, and with ATT each of us have to pay $20 for texting which just bothers me. The best plan IMO will be a Verizon family plan sharing 1400 mins (hopefully with 4 or 5 people on it) and a tiered data plan. You could be looking at $45 a person (plus fees and taxes) if you do it right.



    $30 each for talk and text and $15 each for a lowered amount of data.



    Right now neither ATT or Verizon comes close to that.
  • Reply 44 of 132
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cpr1 View Post


    You can do this on Verizon?



    Nope. You can't do it on the moon either, or with free strippers.



    You can't have everything you want.
  • Reply 45 of 132
    cpr1cpr1 Posts: 41member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cameronj View Post


    Nope. You can't do it on the moon either, or with free strippers.



    You can't have everything you want.



    So all I have to do is switch to a carrier with less coverage. Sounds like a plan.
  • Reply 46 of 132
    This may have been mentioned above already...



    I like it. Make the cell companies a "commodity" like sugar or water! Cheaper for the customer



    Also, similar to what Apple did with the iPod. Come out with the original iPod at $499 and then eventually introduce the Shuffle (flash) and took over the flash MP3 market in very short order.



    I would like a cheaper iPhone. ATT is killing me.
  • Reply 47 of 132
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by samab View Post


    It is still a lot better than most other countries --- where the carriers don't compete at all.



    What are you going to do in Norway --- they have 2 carriers. France --- 3 carriers.



    What are you going to do in Japan --- where docomo owns more than 50% of their wireless market. What are you going to do in Korea --- where SK Telecom owns more than 50% of their wireless market.



    samab, once again, your reply is deftly not to the point.
  • Reply 48 of 132
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cpr1 View Post


    So all I have to do is switch to a carrier with less coverage. Sounds like a plan.



    Yeah, a really terrible one, ATT or Tmobile, which together have hoodwinked 150 million people into using them. I hate people who bitch just for the sake of it.
  • Reply 49 of 132
    cpr1cpr1 Posts: 41member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cameronj View Post


    Yeah, a really terrible one, ATT or Tmobile, which together have hoodwinked 150 million people into using them. I hate people who bitch just for the sake of it.



    I've been on both and neither have the coverage I need. I'm truly sorry if that upsets you -- please don't hate me.
  • Reply 50 of 132
    I would love for AAPL to become a MVNO and adopt UMA (like voip over wifi) for the bulk of calls. They could seriously change the balance of power in the telecom world, quickly.
  • Reply 51 of 132
    It seems to me Apple could gain some real leverage and flexibility if their carrier-neutral phone didn't have to deal with a pesky traditional voice plan. I've got my iPhone operating thru "one pipe," via the Line2 app and a Clearwire 4G portable hotspot, saving me a bundle, with surprisingly few compromises on the phone side ($9.95/mo for my own number with unlimited text and talk), and true mobile broadband speeds for data. Put the 4G without voice in the damn phone and you're golden. Apple would provide your carrier-neutral phone number, just like Line2. Phone service wouldn't even depend on the device, as it'd all be internet-based. So obvious.
  • Reply 52 of 132
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Inkling View Post


    That's true if you go with plans, but if you prepay, you can get by for far less. I use T-Mobile prepay for voice on my iPhone and the cost is running about $6 a month. I'd love to have a reasonably priced pay-per-byte plan drawing from that same prepay that'd let me check bus schedules at stops far removed from WiFi. I'd be even happier if the cheapness came from have a low-priority data feed. T-Mobile would save, since I wouldn't get data while any one with a fancier plan wanted it. I'd save money, since I don't care if I wait 20-30 seconds for that bus data. Win-win.



    The way to keep costs down with prepay is to divert longer calls to VoIP. I did use MagicJack, but I grew tired of fixing data corruption on the USB dongle every few months. I've shifted to Skype's call-out service. It's less than a quarter of T-Mobile's already cheap rates and I can also use the Skype app on my iPhone when I have access to WiFi. Overseas calls are cheap too. And if I later need to take incoming calls, I can have a local number almost anywhere I want.



    Michael W. Perry, author of Untangling Tolkien



    I have access to Skype calls everywhere I go with 3G coverage and I don't mind paying for it, that is just one example of why I don't want to mess around with prepay on edge.



    I can't see Apple releasing any low end phone without App store access and compatibility, a smaller screen at the same resolution as the older 2G, 3G and 3GS might work but not very well for some functions.
  • Reply 53 of 132
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    recent patents say they have a built in "optimizer" for choosing the cheapest plan realtime

    well they have the muscle to do this, become a mvno, buy a teleco



    now lets maneuver about apple SJ style, he is customer oriented, the UI is king

    thats why he pushed for 99cent songs, apps etc



    the power of his power is BIG, he pushes a lot of tech and fans



    by putting this out there he can do two things



    activate-- to counter android cheaper phones which are coming, didn't scmidt say he wanted cheaper smartphones?



    push the teleco's his way, or else unleash the hounds



    SJ is playing to win, we should have a eu model for the USA, buy the phone get a plan



    i would be sh_*&%ing bricks if i were a teleco



    work with SJ and prosper, work against SJ and he runs over you



    customers would go ape



    right now, you buy a phone and get unlimited text, data, talk for $45 at walmart using VZ network we know that texting is just pure money cash cow, and its all DATA. talk, text, data its ALL DATA so the teleco's are just pipes





    $70 is tooooooo much, i'd pay $400 for a phone and use SJ dynamic cellphone purchase patent



    200 400 600 follow the success of the iPod and macbook line



    CAN'T WAIT
  • Reply 54 of 132
    I don't see a problem...throw in a handful of Apple engineers to pare down iOS, lead by a PHD, get a factory in China to manufacturer it, pay the Chinese workers $1/hr., let the factory wear out its equipment, get Fedex to use a dozen 747's to ship it/belch tons of soot into the air, put it on your website and in your 300+ retail stores, pay your retail staff $8/hr and make a boatload!



    Sell each one for a $1, sell a billion....and make....errr help me with the math!



    PS. 1.6 Billion phones sold last year compared to 40 million iPhones! (I think I have that right?)
  • Reply 55 of 132
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    The report claimed that Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs "aims to narrow the price gap that has made phones running Android more popular than iPhones" with the new handset targeted for launch in mid-2011.



    Complete BS, because Jobs always was smart enough to NOT get pulled into a price war, and he never considered Android a worthy competitor.



    However, it'd be very interesting if any of this was true. Time will tell.
  • Reply 56 of 132
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by noirdesir View Post


    Get a used, unlocked iPhone and just use it with a voice plan only. Presto, you have your WiFi phone.







    And when AT&T figures out that you are using an iPhone, they will add a data plan to your account. Automatically. Unless their policy has changed.



    Get an iPod Touch and install Skype. Or Vonnage. Now you have your WiFi phone.
  • Reply 57 of 132
    noirdesirnoirdesir Posts: 1,027member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheWatchfulOne View Post






    And when AT&T figures out that you are using an iPhone, they will add a data plan to your account. Automatically. Unless their policy has changed.



    Sorry, how can a company exclude certain phones from their plans? You get a SIM and a plan and then put that SIM in any phone you want. Read through the fine print when you get a new plan + SIM, does it say anywhere in that fine print that this plan cannot be used on iPhones?



    I have used multiple SIMs in multiple iPhones in multiple countries, never did changing the phone change the underlying contract I had for that SIM card.
  • Reply 58 of 132
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Apple is working on a new design and form factor for the iPhone that would allow for a less expensive, contract-free model to take on the competing Google Android platform ... Apple has allegedly developed a prototype iPhone model that is cheaper and one-third smaller than the current-generation iPhone 4. The report claimed that Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs "aims to narrow the price gap that has made phones running Android more popular than iPhones" ...



    This just sounds ridiculous on the face of it. It doesn't sound like a good product or a strategy Apple would pursue, and the given reason (if they were cheaper they'd sell better), is something that isn't actually true.
  • Reply 59 of 132
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anonymouse View Post


    The iPhone Nano rumor rears it's head again.



    Yep.



    It makes little sense to say they need to have a cheaper model to draw customers in too. The phone isn't that expensive relative to other phones right now and it's selling like hotcakes at the current price as well.



    Also, if they wanted to make it cheaper they could just swallow some of the massive margin and profits they are making. They could probably reduce the non-contract price by several hundred without losing too much profit already, and they are rolling in cash right now anyway.
  • Reply 60 of 132
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheWatchfulOne View Post






    And when AT&T figures out that you are using an iPhone, they will add a data plan to your account. Automatically. Unless their policy has changed.



    False
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