Apple or Android phones?

N20Y1D

HTC

Oscartheposcar wrote: »

1) The resale value thing is a big deal for customers - if you can sell last year's iPhone for a high price that greatly reduces the upfront cost of a new model. Like I said, I'm not sure how older Android phones compare, but it's a valid point if you're working out total cost of ownership.

But its all relative, you are paying a lot more for the handset and selling it for more. At the end of the day you are still paying an inflated price.

bubblesmoney

HTC

Fifer wrote: »

The resale value is a probably a big thing for some customers. I've never sold a second hand phone in my life.

me too, i just give away my old phones to others who might use it. i cant understand why some people would be desperate to buy a second hand iphone, if there were equal or better options to get a new phone with better features for free on contract. anyway to each his own.

Fifer

HTC

bubblesmoney wrote: »

me too, i just give away my old phones to others who might use it. i cant understand why some people would be desperate to buy a second hand iphone, if there were equal or better options to get a new phone with better features for free on contract. anyway to each his own.

I wonder if a major factor in second hand values is fashion?

Oscartheposcar

iPhone

Fifer wrote: »

I wonder if a major factor in second hand values is fashion?

Absolutely. That's the point I was making - I originally got an iPhone 3G on an 18 month £35/month contract a couple of years ago. Since that ended I've been on a £15 rolling contract with the same minutes/texts/data. I sold my iPhone 3G for over £200 which I was staggered by - and that was to a recycling site - they're going for more on eBay. As a result, getting a new sim-free iPhone was expensive but nowhere near as expensive as the list price.

Had I had say a Blackberry Storm originally, on the same contract and not much cheaper handset price, according to the recycling site I would have got about £30 to put towards my new phone.

The point I'm making is that once you've got an iPhone, you can exploit its high secondhand value retention (which is clearly down to brand recognition and fashion rather than raw specifications). I agree that actually getting one in the first place is more expensive now than it was when the 3G was launched, especially with the move to 24 month contracts from lots of networks.

Perhaps this will be true for the range of HTC and other Android phones too (and you'll be able to sell your HTC Desire for £200+ in a couple of years time), but I'm not sure.

Anyway: each to their own!

jimbms

iPhone

I think a better question would be, if both phones cost the same which one would you pick, or even bring into the equation the iphone 3GS, after all cost to some of us is not really a factor, we buy what we like using and will pay for that. If you look seriously the Desire and HD2 are advertised around the £400 mark for sim free not including the discount places and the Evo is expected to be around the same if not more, so when you add what most people buy which is an extra battery and some more memory then your not that far off price, now take into account the first two and the fact the 3GS is about to drop in price, then cost is in reality out of the equation. So given that and the fact I have used the 3GS, the Desire and the 4 I would say I liked the 3GS the best for ease of use and what I want, the 4 I am putting equal with the desire, main reason I like the high def screen and the o/s is what I like using. For some reasone the desire was always a let down after all the hype, almost there but didn't quite make it for me, as for the 4 I sold mine yesterday and made £100 profit, why, because for me the 3GS still has the edge and all I need, I will get another 4 once they have the next edition because apple will have to shove some nice extras in it to gain consumer confidence back, mem card slot or replaceable battery are rumoured, btw all reference to iphones are jailbroken models of course, if you couldn't jailbreak I would not buy one.

Fifer

HTC

jimbms wrote: »

I think a better question would be, if both phones cost the same which one would you pick

That probably is the right question. For me, it would be the Desire as things stand. I'd already ruled out the 3GS before deciding on the Desire (not on price as I'd have been happy to pay for the right product) and the iPhone 4 only fixes one of the factors for me (screen resolution).

The near perfect phone would be a Desire with iPhone 4 screen resolution.

Fifer

HTC

Oscartheposcar wrote: »

Absolutely. That's the point I was making - I originally got an iPhone 3G on an 18 month £35/month contract a couple of years ago. Since that ended I've been on a £15 rolling contract with the same minutes/texts/data. I sold my iPhone 3G for over £200 which I was staggered by - and that was to a recycling site - they're going for more on eBay. As a result, getting a new sim-free iPhone was expensive but nowhere near as expensive as the list price.

Had I had say a Blackberry Storm originally, on the same contract and not much cheaper handset price, according to the recycling site I would have got about £30 to put towards my new phone.

Was there more or less than £180 difference in the total costs of ownership excluding resale value (purchase price and contract outlay over period of ownership) between the two?

N20Y1D

HTC

Oscartheposcar wrote: »

Absolutely. That's the point I was making - I originally got an iPhone 3G on an 18 month £35/month contract a couple of years ago. Since that ended I've been on a £15 rolling contract with the same minutes/texts/data. I sold my iPhone 3G for over £200 which I was staggered by - and that was to a recycling site - they're going for more on eBay. As a result, getting a new sim-free iPhone was expensive but nowhere near as expensive as the list price.

Had I had say a Blackberry Storm originally, on the same contract and not much cheaper handset price, according to the recycling site I would have got about £30 to put towards my new phone.

The point I'm making is that once you've got an iPhone, you can exploit its high secondhand value retention (which is clearly down to brand recognition and fashion rather than raw specifications). I agree that actually getting one in the first place is more expensive now than it was when the 3G was launched, especially with the move to 24 month contracts from lots of networks.

Perhaps this will be true for the range of HTC and other Android phones too (and you'll be able to sell your HTC Desire for £200+ in a couple of years time), but I'm not sure.

Anyway: each to their own!

Yes but also factor in that the £35 contract you got originally on your iphone would have been discounted (maybe by 50%) on any other handset with little bit of haggling. Over 18months thats a hell of a lot of money. So again you havent really saved.

The fact people are willing to pay so much for second hand iphones is because they dont want to have to pay ridiculous amounts for a contract or for a new sim free phone.

bubblesmoney

HTC

for my htc desire i currently pay 20£ a month on an 18m contract (1100 xnet mins plus 300min 3-3, 1gb internet, free skype, free WLM) with a phone cost of 10£ (originally was supposed to be £150 but i got discounts of 140£). so my total cost for 18months for my price plan is 370£. even if i throw away my desire at the end of the contract still it is a no brainer on costs and quality of the phone. the iphone monthly contract itself would be more expensive and dont forget the cost of the phone as extra.

even now htc desire is supposedly available as an outright purchase for existing O2 customers (even on simplicity contracts) for 285£ without any contract, so why would anyone buy it for 400£ like someone is suggesting it here. the actual street price is what counts and not the printed price.

fair enough if you want an iphone at any cost then there is no arguments. but to say an iphone is economical or a good deal isnt accurate. i had thought about buying an iphone but the lag times frustrated me when ever i used friend iphones for browsing. and flash was a necessary feature for me so iphones were ruled out entirely as they dont support flash based websites and wont do so in the near future too. html5 is nowhere near the picture to rule the world during the duration of my contract. even if html5 were to take over websites instead of flash, android still would be fine as android does html5 anyway and the version of html5 touted to now rule the website world is google developed anyway so android will do that more efficiently anyway!

loads of others including me can afford any phone on the market now (excluding the ones studded with diamonds etc for the playboys and super rich:p) on contract or PAYG, but i thought we were talking of phones for the lay smart phone user on the street including me.

nickmack

jimbms wrote: »

I think a better question would be, if both phones cost the same which one would you pick, or even bring into the equation the iphone 3GS, after all cost to some of us is not really a factor, we buy what we like using and will pay for that.

vs. iPhone 4 - for me the Desire
vs. 3GS - No competition, even if the 3GS was half what I'm paying now

If you look seriously the Desire and HD2 are advertised around the £400 mark for sim free not including the discount places and the Evo is expected to be around the same if not more, so when you add what most people buy which is an extra battery and some more memory then your not that far off price, now take into account the first two and the fact the 3GS is about to drop in price, then cost is in reality out of the equation.

I'm not sure where you're going with the 'extra battery'. There is no requirement to purchase one. I test with numerous HTC (and other) devices on a daily basis and have never needed to replace the battery. Some of the device are heavily utilised and two years plus in age.

Add to this MicroSD memory being cheaper (and easier) than moving to a higher capacity iPhone and the ability to get the Desire with good contract for <£400, I still see a significant difference in price.

So given that and the fact I have used the 3GS, the Desire and the 4 I would say I liked the 3GS the best for ease of use and what I want, the 4 I am putting equal with the desire, main reason I like the high def screen and the o/s is what I like using. For some reason the desire was always a let down after all the hype, almost there but didn't quite make it for me, as for the 4 I sold mine yesterday and made £100 profit, why, because for me the 3GS still has the edge and all I need,

I can appreciate we have different requirements. There's no doubt the iPhone does 'simple' in a slick way. However, I struggle to think of it as more than a kids toy (see my comment about 2 year old above). However with the iPhone 4 and the new Mobile Device Management protocol, Apple are making serious efforts to make this a contender as a corporate device. It will be interesting to see what happens.

It sounds like you were let down by both the Desire and iPhone 4, so maybe you have very specific requirements which haven't been met in the current market.

I will get another 4 once they have the next edition because apple will have to shove some nice extras in it to gain consumer confidence back, mem card slot or replaceable battery are rumoured.

I don't mean to be obtuse, but this did make me chuckle. The 'nice extras' you mention are already present on just about every smartphone on the market and have been for a few years. It's typical of Apple to present basic functionality as something to behold in the next iPhone.