What A Scam!

Jeff and I have been talking a lot about new cell phones lately. We werent too thrilled with our current provider before, but are even less thrilled now that we are in the new house and realize that our service has some serious glitches. I get "network" issues and failed calls all of the time at home ... and these issues werent even on the complaint list before. Our contract is up shortly and we think we are going to try someone new. Jeff has had his eye on the iPhone since it first came out (who hasn't???) and the release of the next generation of that phone seems to time pretty close to our contract expiration.

Then I read today that according to Yahoo! Tech, the new "half-price" iPhone3G half-price iPhone 3G will actually cost you more in the long-run. While Apple is dropping the price of the phone to $199 (they're currently $399), AT&T (the mobile service provider) is raising the plan fee $10. Thus if you have an iPhone now, your two-year total is $1,839. With the new iPhone your two-year total is $1,879!

Makes me wonder about the deal between these two companies. You know that AT&T isnt banking all the cash while Apple walks away with just the phone price. According to an article based on the price of the old package (phone & 2yr contract), Apple was making $432 off each iPhone sale. I would assume this deal hasnt changed more, and with the success of the phone for both parties its quite possile that Apple's deal is even sweeter this go-around.

The new phone does look pretty sweet though. NetworkWorld says that compared to the old model, the new Iphone:
- Is thinner & sleeker

- Downloads data up to 2.8 times faster

- Comes with built-in GPS

- Improves battery life: with 5 hour talk time, 300 hour stand-by time, 6 hour high-speed browsining time, and 20 hours audio & 7 hours video.