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benc
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Glen Carbon, IL
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| How Much Does It Really Cost to Own a Smartphone?
The article may be misleading, or at least has the potential for being misinterpreted.
$3,800 over two years?
Where the heck did they get those numbers from? Are they assuming the grand total, and making assumptions about what voice plans the customers will have?
Using the $3,800 figure, if you assume that the device will cost $500, then that means $137.50 per month for the service plan. If you assume a tax rate of 22% (because of taxes and fees), it comes out to about $112.70 before taxes. That sounds more like a grand total monthly cost.
A better measure is to consider the cost difference between a basic voice plan, and having a smartphone with a data plan.
The most basic voice plan is $40/mo., for an individual phone, the fewest number of minutes, and no extra options.
If you consider a mobile phone to be a necessity, or that you will have one anyway no matter what, then it's pointless to consider that cost. It makes more sense to consider the difference. Plus, consider the fact that most likely, most people don't have the smallest plan available.
A better measure is to consider this:
One time cost:
(Cost of smart phone) - (Cost of regular or simple phone) = One time cost difference.
On-going/Monthly Cost:
Just the cost of the data plan, which is usually $30 or so. Let's knock it up to $35 due to taxes, fees, and the like.
Add up the costs of the data plan over two years, and using the $35 price point, the total cost is $840. Add the cost of even the most expensive smart phone (lets say, $500), and the total ($1,340) is a far cry from $3,800. | |
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| My Sprint Palm Pre smartphone ran $200 and hits $85/mo for full unlimited data everything with taxes & fees. Total cost of ownership for 2 years then only comes to (24x85)+200= $2240
My old voice only Verizon plan ran $55/mo with taxes and fees and no charge for the phone. (24x55)= $1320
So by switching to a smartphone, it costs me an extra $920 over 2 years or $38.33/month.
That seems pretty reasonable to me.
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
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| reply to benc
Agreed. Whenever I've bought a smartphone, AT&T lets me keep my family voice plan exactly the same. So if I were a regular non-data phone user and switched to an iPhone, it would cost me $30 more plus tax per month, or 720, more over the life of the 2 year contract. Add the iPhone 3G itself (as low as 99 plus tax plus bogus upgrade fee).
I preferred the older iPhone plan where the handset was more expensive, but was only +$20/month (and included 200 texts!).
I'm hoping at some point, as has happened with voice plans, text and data prices will get driven down by competitive pressure. Unfortunately,the iPhone has clearly demonstrated to providers that Americans prefer to pay lower upfront costs and higher monthly fees.
The only portion of my wireless bill that I really detest is the text plan, especially when I'm already paying for data. I can transfer 5GB of data for $30, but transfering 80kb (500 texts at max 160) worth of texts is an extra $5!?! At least with data, I see actual work going in to upgrade towers and have seen steadily improving performance.
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benc
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| said by djrobx  :The only portion of my wireless bill that I really detest is the text plan, especially when I'm already paying for data. I can transfer 5GB of data for $30, but transfering 80kb (500 texts at max 160) worth of texts is an extra $5!?! At least with data, I see actual work going in to upgrade towers and have seen steadily improving performance. It's for that reason that I don't like SMS, or text messages. Never have. I'm not necessarily against the overall concept (though I think that some people really go overboard with it), just that the price seems quite high for what you get, even with an unlimited SMS option.
I figure that it's better to use e-mail instead for this purpose. Using E-mail to SMS gateways, I figure that you can still send an SMS to someone. The difference being that if you use e-mail, you won't have to pay for the SMS, or purchase an unlimited SMS option.
Let's see:
Unlimited SMS costs $20/mo., usually.
Data can be $25-$35.
So, for only a little bit more, instead of SMS you can use e-mails, and on top of that get access to the Internet and so on. Plus, with e-mails you aren't limited to only 160 characters. | |
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