[quote]Aggv wrote:
Besides the fact, it’s a fucking phone; does it really matter. Get what suits your needs and financially makes sense[/quote]
Number one reason not to get an iPhone.[/quote]
The iPhone 4 is FREE with a contract… The 4s is $100.[/quote]
And how much do you pay over the course of the contract?[/quote]
I’m guessing you’ve never been to North America before.
Everything in the US is mega cheap, It is the birthplace of consumerism.
If you ever take a trip to the US in your life two things you will immediately notice:
There are a ton of fat people
There’s a million different choices (walk into a grocery store and you’ll see 20 different brands of peanut butter for instance) and everything is mega cheap.
And how much do you pay over the course of the contract?[/quote]
Are you dumb?
You pay a few hundred dollars which includes minutes and internet etc.
It’s all the same shit as the Nokia you have a hard on for.
Or are they now giving the Nokia’s away free as no one buys them any more cos they are shit?[/quote]
No, I’m not dumb, I just haven’t bought a phone with a contract abroad. That would have been dumb.
How many hundred dollars? Tell me. I found a verizon’s 4S 32 GB for 199 + 40 a month for 24 months, and I don’t consider 1259 dollars for a phone and 2 years of usage cheap. I guess there are better deals, so tell me.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
I’m guessing you’ve never been to North America before.
Everything in the US is mega cheap, It is the birthplace of consumerism.
If you ever take a trip to the US in your life two things you will immediately notice:
There are a ton of fat people
There’s a million different choices (walk into a grocery store and you’ll see 20 different brands of peanut butter for instance) and everything is mega cheap.
[/quote]
Went to New York as a kid, but haven’t been to the US since. Great prices on some things. We kind of make up for it by paying a few hundred thousand less for a doctors degree and health care.
[quote]kakno wrote:
Went to New York as a kid, but haven’t been to the US since. Great prices on some things. We kind of make up for it by paying a few hundred thousand less for a doctors degree and health care.[/quote]
Yes but material objects are the most important thing in life, so we win!
And how much do you pay over the course of the contract?[/quote]
Are you dumb?
You pay a few hundred dollars which includes minutes and internet etc.
It’s all the same shit as the Nokia you have a hard on for.
Or are they now giving the Nokia’s away free as no one buys them any more cos they are shit?[/quote]
No, I’m not dumb, I just haven’t bought a phone with a contract abroad. That would have been dumb.
How many hundred dollars? Tell me. I found a verizon’s 4S 32 GB for 199 + 40 a month for 24 months, and I don’t consider 1259 dollars for a phone and 2 years of usage cheap. I guess there are better deals, so tell me.[/quote]
A cheap laptop and skype. Far far cheaper, has built in wifi, and you can connect to 3G and 4G networks with a fairly cheap data contract. A few bucks more and it even connects to bluetooth.
Plus it does everything else a laptop does.
As far as true phones, pay-as-you-go things like a TracFone is probably the cheapest you’ll find.
And if you have an internet connection at home and don’t need the mobility, companies like Vonage or Lingo provide good cheap “landline” services.
[quote]Aggv wrote:
Besides the fact, it’s a fucking phone; does it really matter. Get what suits your needs and financially makes sense[/quote]
Number one reason not to get an iPhone.[/quote]
The iPhone 4 is FREE with a contract… The 4s is $100.[/quote]
And how much do you pay over the course of the contract?[/quote]
Its a moot point because every smart phone requires the same amount of money per month essentially. To my knowledge there isn’t a phone in the same category as the iPhone (things like the Nokia, and the Galaxy series) that are significantly cheaper monthly.
You do bring up a good point though, and that is that you cannot simply use the initial cost of the phone as the sole marker for how expensive it is, because you are also buying the 2 year contract most of the time.
The difference in price of 50 dollars, even 100 dollars, is negligible after you have paid 60 a month for 24 months. The actual phone is only about 10-15% of the total price, and even less if you have it for more than 2 years.
Cell phone plans are expensive. I pay $69 a month for my talk plan with unlimited data and text. I remember paying half that when I first got a cell phone.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Its a moot point because every smart phone requires the same amount of money per month essentially. To my knowledge there isn’t a phone in the same category as the iPhone (things like the Nokia, and the Galaxy series) that are significantly cheaper monthly.
You do bring up a good point though, and that is that you cannot simply use the initial cost of the phone as the sole marker for how expensive it is, because you are also buying the 2 year contract most of the time.
The difference in price of 50 dollars, even 100 dollars, is negligible after you have paid 60 a month for 24 months. The actual phone is only about 10-15% of the total price, and even less if you have it for more than 2 years.[/quote]
So you just have a nation-wide cartel that offers shitty deals? That sucks. The SGS3 is “free” here for 33 dollars a month (data, calls, texts and 25% tax included) for two years and it’s the best phone on the market today. And it’s cheaper than any iPhone with the same storage capacity.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
A cheap laptop and skype. Far far cheaper, has built in wifi, and you can connect to 3G and 4G networks with a fairly cheap data contract. A few bucks more and it even connects to bluetooth.
Plus it does everything else a laptop does.
As far as true phones, pay-as-you-go things like a TracFone is probably the cheapest you’ll find.
And if you have an internet connection at home and don’t need the mobility, companies like Vonage or Lingo provide good cheap “landline” services.[/quote]
Not as portable as a phone though.
[quote]kakno wrote:
So you just have a nation-wide cartel that offers shitty deals?[/quote]
Yes, that’s a pretty good generalization of a lot of things in this country.
Yeah, smartphones seem to have the right mix of portability, mobility, and function (and an effective government lobbyist supported cartel) to drive the price up significantly compared to other options.
The price of the phone itself is almost a non-issue in this country, since the monthly contract is generally going to be a minimum of $80/mo for 2 years, regardless of the phone.
Part of it is how the various companies have monopolized the technologies of their networks. In most cases, you can only use an AT&T phone on an AT&T network; a Verizon phone on the Verizon network; a Sprint phone on the Sprint network, etc. Even an AT&T iPhone doesn’t work on a Verizon network, and vice versa. They use different variants of the same network protocol.
Versus many other places where you can use whatever phone on whatever network. The price of the phone actually matters, since you actually get something of a real choice.
To those with a Galaxy: Since my phone auto-upgraded, I can no longer watch YouTube clips on T-Nation. I have no problems with other sites, just this one. Is there something I can turn on/off to watch vids here again? Half the reason I come here is to watch the random vids people post.