Do you really need it? Was it worth it?

owen1978

Im talking about the iphone

I never could wrap my head around the cost of the phone and what
people pay!!! Its ridiculous!

When the first iphone came out, i wanted one, but the cost put me
off, way to overpriced for what it does.

I waited and waited and settled for a HTC Hero for £25 on 18 months. It does everything any smartphone should do.

Other smartphones do exist which does everything that iphones
do. Why put yourselves financially out?

What cracks me up is when i see people on the forum asking about
whats the best iphone deal etc... the thing i find amusing is that
they are on are forum called MoneySavingExpert theres a clue there!

If you got the finances to easily afford a iphone maybe igotcashtoburn.com would be a better forum.

In these hard times your money can be put to better use? e.g. add
a bit extra to your credit card repayment, pay a little bit more on the mortgage, put it into an ISA etc...

A good example;
For my wife i got her an OSF using £25 off VERY code, so the phone
cost £76 plus this weekend i got her the £7.50 tmobile sim deal.

This post is not really here to offend people, more to give them a
shake and wake them up and help spend your hard earned cash a bit more wisely.

Im sure Martin would agree!

:money:

simax

owen1978 wrote: »

I waited and waited and settled for a HTC Hero for £25 on 18 months. It does everything any smartphone should do.

Other smartphones do exist which does everything that iphones
do. Why put yourselves financially out?

But it's not an iPhone.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg

Quenastoise

I know where you're coming from (I see the attraction of the iphone but would feel really guilty forking out for one) but on the other hand, we all make choices about what we consume and that comes with a trade off: you may have a nice phone but an older car or you may have a nice phone but cut back somewhere else in the budget, we are all different

gjchester

owen1978 wrote: »

Im talking about the iphone

I never could wrap my head around the cost of the phone and what
people pay!!! Its ridiculous!

First price wise, it's not really that expensive. A sim free iPhone is £499 for the 16gb, Looking at Expansys the Desire HD is £400 sim free, the Xperia Play (the PSP phone) is £520 sim free, the Xperia X8 is £430, the galaxy S is £360 so it's really not that mch when you consider the true unsubsidised cost, it's around the same ball park as other flagship phones. Only difference is Apple didn't let the networks fully subsidise the cost they want Apple to be a premium brand, that why they are not seen as cheaper phones unlike most Android phones.


I have a Windows mobile before my iPhone and tried android but don't have one of my own as I though at the time Android wasn't as far on a iOS.

I still think that, Where the iPhone really shines is Apple's UI is extremly consistant through apps whereas Android Apps can vary so much. Theres good and bad in that, one side is its easy to use, the other is it can stifle creativity. Look at the HTC Sense, Mortorols MotoBlur, and SE Timescape apps all are trying to add to the experience, Apple don't need to.


I also think that whislt there are more Android phone out there now, Apple still leads. Apple markets the iPhone, not the 3, 3g, 3gs, 4 or 5, simply the iPhone. Android is splintered, each and every maker is fighting the other brands. Coming back to the earlier point Android phones are fighting each other for market share, and price is a driver, the fact almost all android phones can be got free on on contract shows how all the makers are trying to out do each other to get share.

Will it change, maybe, but for me the iPhone is head and shoulders above my prior phones for ease of use, and that ease of use is probably the main reason why they sell so well.

Rusty!

Quenastoise wrote: »

you may have a nice phone but an older car

My phone cost one and three quarter times what I paid for my car :rotfl:

Car was a good price though

JJ_Egan

Yep you pays your money and takes your choice .
Either as an I want or as a purchase to cover your needs .
I wants are always expensive and are often not really needed .
Purchase to cover your needs can be many and varied .
Some may see the IP4 as worth £170 more than a HTC Desire or Samsung Galaxy others wont .

Pound for pound and the fact that Apple is a closed system coupled with lack of phone choice always meant i was never going to buy one anyway .Plus going by this board alone a lot of I Phones get lost knicked or even stolen .

jje

ryan86uk

The iPhone is by far the best phone I have ever had. I can't see myself going for any other brand if i'm honest.

I bought my iPhone direct from apple as I hate contracts and how people get ripped off on them! O2 Pay as you go simplicity + iPhone = Laughing.

All the perks of a contract for £20 a month and I can change networks when I want... ding dang do!

grumbler

gjchester wrote: »

First price wise, it's not really that expensive. A sim free iPhone is £499 for the 16gb, Looking at Expansys the Desire HD is £400 sim free, the Xperia Play (the PSP phone) is £520 sim free, the Xperia X8 is £430, the galaxy S is £360 so it's really not that mch when you consider the true unsubsidised cost, it's around the same ball park as other flagship phones. Only difference is Apple didn't let the networks fully subsidise the cost they want Apple to be a premium brand, that why they are not seen as cheaper phones unlike most Android phones.

All these are top-range phones, like BMW/Merc/Lexus/.... Nobody on low income in their right mind buys these cars except high mileage second-hand. Surprisingly, it's a common place when skint people

• stretch their budget and spend their last money on a £500ish toy, that becomes worthless in 2 years even if it survives;
• pay ridiculous money for insurance because they cannot afford losing this sort of money;
• sign long term contracts that are likely to destroy their credit history should they lose some income, even short-term.

Does this make any sense? Isn't it similar to installing a gold-plated toilet in a council bedsit?

Having said that, I do have Desire, but despite being able to easily pay the full price for it and to replace it without any insurance, I did have some job done to get it for less than £100 in total with free airtime.

diamonds

i-plods are all about hype - America was so behind in 3G (Apple starting at 2G created demand for 3G/3GS speed upgrades, wink wink) that i-phone was a FIRST there for touchscreen and 3G.

Mass hype or hysteria spreads, fundamentally known.

The lack of open OS/apps really is a killer in technological form Apple are moving back, the form of the phones were asthetically pleasing but thats nothing other manufacturers have not moved onto either.

In terms of touchscreen its a great responsive touchscreen till you realise that its heat responsive & in northern climates that can make it a pain to use.

Apple will fall in sales given the likes of Google & HTC, Nokia & Microsoft partnerships (HTC was Microsofts sole contractor for many of a monopoly years - logical NOKIA & Micro were always going to jump into bed when HTC started using its own branding and not the buying networks logo with the HTC produced handsets using EXCLUSIVELY on both companies accounts Windows Mobile Operating System.

14 months of problems with my 3GS, two replacements in first 2 months - says it all. After 14 frustrating months mine lies in a drawer as a back up.

Apple have a great screen on i4 but again others are replicating such, still poor battery life on iphones and non interchangable, STILL no additional memory slot...I will be Apple free for a longtime coming.

Blackberry Torch knocks socks off at the moment in the market. Microkia will deliver something amazing, 1 question is....will Nokia demand the inclusion of memory slot on phones using Windows Mobile 7 operating system ? Cos thats a deal breaker with alot of the new breed of WM7 devices that stopped me and many people...the CEO at Nokia needs to make it a deal breaker for Nokia.

Microkia -A small sexy as Kylie's bum biofuelled electric/lpg/hydrogen (or other zero emissioned fuel) car from a eastern manufacturer with fully implemented technology for all passangers with software from Microsoft and Nokia hardware that meets all requirements of international 1) climate change 2) toughest road test crashes & survival rate....everything is MARKETABLE folks....even a non top of the range i-phone


I'm on a Blackberry Pearl 3G and HTC Wildfire for now - both hands over on a 3GS.

Lastly, I quote:

I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever I don’t care about funny
I want loads of clothes and f***loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them
I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
‘Cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous

Life’s about film stars and less about mothers
It’s all about fast cars and passing each other
But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic
and that’s what makes my life so f***ing fantastic
And I am a weapon of massive consumption
and its not my fault it’s how I’m program to function

Forget about guns and forget ammunition
Cause I’m killing them all on my own little mission
Now I’m not a saint but I’m not a sinner
Now everything is cool as long as I’m getting thinner

Rusty!

diamonds wrote: »

In terms of touchscreen its a great responsive touchscreen till you realise that its heat responsive & in northern climates that can make it a pain to use.

Completely untrue, it's a capacitive screen.

gjchester

grumbler wrote: »

All these are top-range phones, like BMW/Merc/Lexus/.... Nobody on low income in their right mind buys these cars except high mileage second-hand. Surprisingly, it's a common place when skint people

• stretch their budget and spend their last money on a £500ish toy, that becomes worthless in 2 years even if it survives;
• pay ridiculous money for insurance because they cannot afford losing this sort of money;
• sign long term contracts that are likely to destroy their credit history should they lose some income, even short-term.

My comment was not about affordability or not or what people should buy. My comment was that a top of the range flagship phone, be it Apple, HTC, SE, Motorola , whoever, ALL cost about the same, namely the £400-£500 bracket if bought Sim Free.

The UK is used to phones being almost totaly subsidised through higher line rental fee's, other countries don't. They use the Buy Sim Free get cheaper services model. Apple changed this business model in the UK, but others can't do so, Palm tried it with the Pre, positioning it as a premium brand and failed.

Regardless of if you like Apple or not you can't deny that generally Apple is considered a premium brand, and people are willing to pay a premium to get it. The same can't be said for other phone brands. It's not to do with the features of the phone it is as you say brand.

I don't doubt people get into problems due to over reaching themselves, but what can we do about it? If people live for the moment then no amount of common sense will shine through. Cheap credit has allowed it and it will be a while before some people understand that time is over.

Your right at the end of the day my iPhone is a luxury toy, it's no different from choosing Bose Headphones over Sennheiser, or Heinz baked beans over tesco Value beans, it's a personal choice and possibly how we wish to be perceived by our peers.

grumbler wrote: »

Does this make any sense? Isn't it similar to installing a gold-plated toilet in a council bedsit?

But no doubt someone somewhere has done that.

One thing that has alway amused me, is families who say they have no money and no prospects when interviewed on the TV. They almost always have big TV's and the high end sky subscriptions. It's not about the actual money amount as such, it's about peoples perceptions of what is luxury and what they choose to buy.