How do people afford the iPhone???

owen1978

There are expensive android devices too out there, im trying to find a good galaxy nexus deal - but they all seem to want £30+ which is far too expensive for my liking.

The simple fact is some people can afford to spend £30 pm on a phone, and some cant.

The ones to that cant afford but still buy the phone (android, bb, iphone etc...) these are the people who need to get the priorities right.

nancmat

We get i-phones through a friends family & friends discount woth 02 so pay £31 a month each, can skype to family abroad for free and use facetime, great phones for us worth it. Syncs up to my works e-mails etc as well so great for staying in touch.

Kai

Humphrey10 wrote: »

It needs to be connected to the internet so you can check for dead or part dead pixels - you need to look at the entire screen when it is red, green, and blue? (or whatever the colours of pixels are, I forget), easiest way to do this is to navigate to a website that has red green etc full screen images. I'd also want to see a black screen and a white screen to check for any other screen defects.

I really cannot see how you could test the phone you are buying for dead pixels or any other screen defect by looking at one of the display models.

Activating an iDevice isn't a problem, they'll do that for you in the Apple shop so you can check the screen etc. Takes 2 min max. Just plug it into a computer, slide to unlock, unplug. Job done.

All of the iDevices I've bought had the latest iOS installed.


Sorry I should have specified - I was talking about buying an iPhone direct from an Apple shop.

Type in *#0*# on a Samsung Galaxy S2 (or most Samsung devices) will bring you into a test mode where you can display red, green, blue, white, black screens. No need for internet or sim even.

Other phones will also have service menus. I agree that staff can be useless sometimes but I cannot see that there would be any problem with anyone buying any phone, if they found a problem with it to have it changed over for another one.

I've never said that you can test or know anything about any device you are buying by only looking at a display model - of course the one that you will buy will not be the display model (unless that's what you want of course). All the phone shops I've ever been in have always asked me if I was interested in a phone they would go out the back and open up a new one for me to inspect and play with before signing up/buying.

Paulee

KP74 wrote: »

I upgraded to Orange in November. My contract is £12.92 for 600 mins, 300 txt and 500mb data. I bought a brand new Iphone 4 16gb for £380. I got the phone unlocked from O2 for £15 and put my Orange sim in.

This looks like a great deal you found, where did you get it and are there any left? Thanks, Paul

robbies_gal

gjchester wrote: »

There was an interesting quiote on one of the Steve Jobs Obituary programs (Ezzie Izzard maybe made it) that went something like ..

"The Ipad does not come with an instruction manual, and yet people can pick it up and use it without having to even look at one."

And that speaks volumes, for a relatively high dech device the Apple UI makes it easy and intuative to use. That may sit behind the sales numbers, it's move the smart phone from a "geek" product to a "use by anyone" device. If my mother can use one and she has trouble with a PC then you can see the market.

Apples walled garden may exist,but it's currently the biggest garden with the best flowers. Will it always be that way, probably not, they have to innovate constantly or will fall from favour, but they are the current leaders.

Interestingly as people think Apple they more and more thing iDevices not the traditional market of Macs and Macbooks.

and i picked up my htc straight away and used it with no manual having never owned an android before

theyre the leaders because people think its trendy to have an iphone not because its better

raddy59

Yeah, those iphones are really expensive.
Look here:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/12/2701990/foxconn-150-suicide-threat

2bFrank

I saved up for my Iphone and bought it outright, smacked a giff gaff sim in and only pay £10 a month. I have always had a Iphone since the 3g but my last phone was a andriod Samsung Galaxy S2 on contract, I didnt like it and sent it back within 7days. Maybe I didnt give it a long enough try but I missed my Iphone, so I bought the IPhone 4S, love it.

Contracts for the iphone are very expensive, but you get what you pay for. My iphone is my treat, I am putting £25 away each month in a savings account for the next iphone, then I will have enough to buy it outright again when the 5 comes out. I pass my old phone onto my mum, and then sell her older iphone (so my mum will get my iphone 4s when the 5 comes out and I will sell her iphone 4 to help pay for the iphone 5 if that makes sense).

You get what you pay for and with the iphone you pay the apple premium, there maybe better phones out there, but in my view nothing beats the iphone. Plus iphones hold some value, when I sell the phone 4 next year, i have no doubt I will get about £100 for it, not bad for a 3 year old phone.

Regarding the labour costs and suicides, foxconn make loads of electronics and phones, not just apple, but even samsung devices are made at foxconn, any phone you buy will more than likely be made abroad in factories such as foxconn.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

I Have been looking at getting an iPhone 4s as a new phone as a treat for PAYG.

I have always had naff basic phones but fancy something better.

I would buy from Apple direct SIM free. In Quidco you get only a 2% discount but that is better than nothing.

I have also looked at the "resale" value. iPhones that have been taken care of do not seem to depreciate as fast as Android phones.

An iPhone 4 32GB NOT a 4s (the new iPhone) can be "recycled" at the moment for £231.00. Prices vary and you may get more than that selling privately. The upfront cost of an iPhone 4s is £599. So playing with these figures when the "iPhone 5" arrives its value is £599 - £231.00 = £368.00. I tend to view things a bit like this. I am guessing when the iPhone 5 arrives I can in effect have £230 towards it by trading in the iPhone 4s.

So ALWAYS keep your phone is good condition and keep all the original boxing and paperwork!!! It may help towards it's trade in value. Another interesting thing is there is little difference in recycling price between the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4s

sammyvine

2bFrank wrote: »

I saved up for my Iphone and bought it outright, smacked a giff gaff sim in and only pay £10 a month. I have always had a Iphone since the 3g but my last phone was a andriod Samsung Galaxy S2 on contract, I didnt like it and sent it back within 7days. Maybe I didnt give it a long enough try but I missed my Iphone, so I bought the IPhone 4S, love it.

Contracts for the iphone are very expensive, but you get what you pay for. My iphone is my treat, I am putting £25 away each month in a savings account for the next iphone, then I will have enough to buy it outright again when the 5 comes out. I pass my old phone onto my mum, and then sell her older iphone (so my mum will get my iphone 4s when the 5 comes out and I will sell her iphone 4 to help pay for the iphone 5 if that makes sense).

You get what you pay for and with the iphone you pay the apple premium, there maybe better phones out there, but in my view nothing beats the iphone. Plus iphones hold some value, when I sell the phone 4 next year, i have no doubt I will get about £100 for it, not bad for a 3 year old phone.

Regarding the labour costs and suicides, foxconn make loads of electronics and phones, not just apple, but even samsung devices are made at foxconn, any phone you buy will more than likely be made abroad in factories such as foxconn.

Is it true that the 4S has terrible battery life. I am planning to get it on a 24 month contract but i have seen a 608 page thread on the Apple website with people complaining about the poor battery life.
Have you encountered any problems?

bazzab

2bFrank wrote: »

I saved up for my Iphone and bought it outright, smacked a giff gaff sim in and only pay £10 a month. I have always had a Iphone since the 3g but my last phone was a andriod Samsung Galaxy S2 on contract, I didnt like it and sent it back within 7days. Maybe I didnt give it a long enough try but I missed my Iphone, so I bought the IPhone 4S, love it.

Contracts for the iphone are very expensive, but you get what you pay for. My iphone is my treat, I am putting £25 away each month in a savings account for the next iphone, then I will have enough to buy it outright again when the 5 comes out. I pass my old phone onto my mum, and then sell her older iphone (so my mum will get my iphone 4s when the 5 comes out and I will sell her iphone 4 to help pay for the iphone 5 if that makes sense).

You get what you pay for and with the iphone you pay the apple premium, there maybe better phones out there, but in my view nothing beats the iphone. Plus iphones hold some value, when I sell the phone 4 next year, i have no doubt I will get about £100 for it, not bad for a 3 year old phone.

This is the classic Apple situation for me.

People get tied into a brand as it is perceived to give a certain status. The poster here has every right to buy the new i-Phone if they want it, but from the moment they receive the current model they are already planning and saving for the next model despite not knowing anything at all about the possible specification, features or functions it will have.

People will also get very protective over their brand of choice and feel the need to justify the cost to how the phone fulfills their needs on an internet forum.

As someone else in this thread said, overpaying to own a status symbol is a major reason nobody has any money at the moment as many spend beyond their means. Unfortunately, the world is now becoming a place where image is everything, and when selecting a new phone rarely do people choose to spend within means over choosing a phone that is marketed as giving a certain perception about them as a person.