Why Our Family Won't Be Buying an iPhone
Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:58PM EDT
See Comments (18)
With all the hoopla surrounding Apple's iPhone release, lines already forming at the Apple store in New York City, and a news story everywhere you turn about the latest service plan detail and review of the most-hyped phone ever, you'd think everyone would be running out on June 29 to buy an iPhone.
Grab the reins. Much as many of us would like to, the fact is most families will not be switching services to add one or more iPhones into our cell phone mix, even if you've got a teen begging for one. At $500 (4GB) and $600 (8GB) a pop, the pricing is prohibitive, even though the service plan options are actually quite reasonable for a smartphone that browses the web, displays email, plays music and videos, takes photos, and doubles as a personal organizer.
Even the most optimistic predictions say that Apple will grab 10 percent of the smartphone market this year—that's 2 million out of 20 million smartphones. And most teens are not walking around with smartphones.
The skeptical among us will sit back and see how the service deal with AT&T goes before we make the leap to another provider. Or wait until other providers, including Verizon (which is big in my neck of the woods) offer iPhone deals. Who wants to trade what has finally become reliable 3G service for the slower EDGE network? (Check out Gina's post for more on that downside.)
By the way, have any of your kids ever dropped an iPod? They're not the most sturdy personal electronics items around. And I'm guessing (without yet holding one in my hands) that the iPhone and its glass screen may not take a fall as well as a regular old cell phone or even my Palm Treo.
Most families have already taken on pretty sizable monthly bills to finance their kids' instant communication habits—and laid out a good bit for iPods (in lots of cases more than one). So I'm wagering most of us are going to wait out the grand unveiling, watch as the market settles, and see if the prices fall within a more a reasonable sphere.
I'd love for my kids to have cutting-edge communication and entertainment technology, sure. But I'd also like for them to go to college. I say that only half-jokingly. If we keep upping monthly bills for cell phones and everything else our kids want, that goal becomes more elusive.
Besides, my kids are more attuned to the unveiling of another kind of wizardry this summer—the July 21 release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." They know that since J.K. Rowling's book is the last in a series of seven, there truly will be no other iteration of this hyped release.
Related:
Real Cost of iPhone: Service Plan Revealed
Why I'm Not Getting an iPhone
The Hype-o-Meter: Revisiting the Mega-Anticipated Products of the Past
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Comments on Why Our Family Won't Be Buying an iPhone
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7 Posted by smwhitacre0 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:30PM EDT Report Abuse
I think that this phone will end up being like the Chocolate with the touch screen - way too sensetive for normal everyday use. People will end up taking it back within a couple of months because they're not satisfied with it.
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8 Posted by etolido on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:56PM EDT Report Abuse
People tend to blame AT&T/Cingular for the slower Edge network speed used by the iPhone. In reality, AT&T have a faster 3G network. I use it all day long with my Samsung BlackJack. It's the lacking iPhone that does not have the 3G chip capability. Watch for that in version 2.
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9 Posted by sandra_vatrano2001 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:03PM EDT Report Abuse
Well I for one won't be getting one cause at $600 that is what I pay in rent and in my opinion it is outragous to waste that much money on something like that.
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10 Posted by desp_1978x on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:41PM EDT Report Abuse
People who will be buying the iPhone don't post in threads like these.. they are too busy making money!!
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11 Posted by dylanbrunson@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:50PM EDT Report Abuse
The iPhone only comes on the Cingular/AT&T Network. I need my cell to work @ my summer home...and the only coverage @ my sumer home is Edge...which is a massive hunk of crap. I need mobile e-mail for my business, I frequenly use the mobile web. And canceling my Verizon contract is a pain, and there aren't enough advantages. If they can work out a ton of the bugs I MAY get one. Plus I have a PC @ my house!!!!! And another thing they are $500 or $600. To much money for a faulty cell. Plus who wants to have to deal with the Edge Wireless??????? Itz slow and a pain in the butt!
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12 Posted by rosettabrooks35 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:51PM EDT Report Abuse
i will not buy one some of us don't have the money, to buy and plus . i am not going to pay for the out rage us monthy bill. i will just stick with my reg cell phone thank you. they all make calls. to high priced.. i think 400 to 500 hund. $is way to much to be paying for a cell phone please. i could find some else to do with the money and better . in two years something else will come out. why not just put your money in the trash can.
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13 Posted by wilwireless on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:47PM EDT Report Abuse
Well the i phone is a very unique phone pricy that is true, it might be worth the money but there many other phones that are in the $300 dollar range that do the same thing as the iphone like the mda or the wing from t mobile and of course the palm treo the windows version yes the iphone is unique in its stile and is from apple so the graffics are crisp well let me take some time to let you know about my website also is called www.sbcs.biz and we have those iphones and if you are short on them well order for there www.sbcs.biz and remember that htc has those phones with everything integrated exept of course there not mac.
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14 Posted by sadeghijk on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:59PM EDT Report Abuse
I find the iPhone useless, and I'm a teenager. I seriously don't understand what the hype is about this phone. I know it's flashy and nice, but it's a phone. The whole purpose of it is to talk. Instead of integrating everything into one unit, phone, ipod, video player, you could easily buy a cheap phone to do text messaging, then you can go buy an ipod with 80GB for about the same price. 4GB and 8GB is decent for a phone, but to people who have mass amounts off music and video, it's laughable. Even if a teen was able to get one, most are careless with these types of expensive items, and it will most likely get stolen. I see this all the time with iPods, so, instead of flushing $500/$600 bucks down the drain, save it and go buy a new computer or TV or something.
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15 Posted by penguino8165 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:06PM EDT Report Abuse
We jokingly asked our teen-aged daughter if she wanted one of these. When she quit laughing, and could breathe again, she said "No thank you". Granted, we don't get great coverage with Virgin, but at least the phones are a LOT cheaper and no stupid contract to worry about. She hasn't lost any of the phones she's ever had (just hidden under bed or left in the band room), but even if she ever did, virgin is a lot cooler to deal with than AT&T would be.
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16 Posted by barbar0820 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:02PM EDT Report Abuse
All of these gidgets are tricks to stress you out more than you already are and to break your pockets. Why do so many people think they need so many ways to communicate, when talking to a person face to face can solve more problems that you think.
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17 Posted by living_jesus_freak_44 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:54PM EDT Report Abuse
im a teen and i thought the iphone would be great but it sounds like Crap to me it doesn't even seam to be working for people im sooo glad i didn't get it i would of just Dropped it and it would probably be smashed in to a million pieces so i have to say No thanks to the iphone it a piece of crap that is Brain washing every ones mind!!!!
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18 Posted by allante89 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:50PM EDT Report Abuse
Great marketing can not mask the iPhone's poor features. Without 3-G capability and common business features, but with under-performing audio the iPhone is more gimmick than current communications. I applaud Apple for great PR but shame them for not getting this better.
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6 Posted by kmac91@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:52PM EDT Report Abuse
Working in the industry for many years. I sold more and more smartphones to kids. Blackberries, Treo's and 8525's. They want them because of the qwerty keyboard to do texting. The B-berriers pearl was made with teenagers in mind and any good sales rep is going to sell to the texting feature. I had a customer who purchased 2 treo's for his 15 and 13 year old with the $39.99 data package added on to his family pland for each phone because it was easier to email his daughters then it was to call them. Smart phones are the next craze for the youth. Good sales reps don't need to sell you smart phones they just point out the benefits to the kids and stand back and let the kid sell it for them. As far as waiting for the Iphone at&t has a 5 year exclusive deal with apple. By that time will be talking about the Icar.