The iPhone 3G is now upon us and now the question for me is whether I really want one or not.  Well, yes, I REALLY want one, I just don't want all the AT&T baggage that comes with it.  I want the iPhone for many reasons, chief among them are that I'm a big Mac Geek and developer and I'd really like to write some software for the iPhone.  The fact that it runs Mac OS X and has a built-in camera and GPS is just too cool for a software engineer to ignore.  So I think that I won't be able to stay away from the iPhone for long, it's only a matter of time before the Mac lover in me gives in and I buy one.

That brings us to the AT&T baggage. The actual phone plans that are available from AT&T are nothing short of outrageous.  They can get away with this because you have no other choice in the matter.  If you want an iPhone then AT&T is your only choice so they can charge whatever they can get away with. So let's look at the cheapest plan and compare it to what I have now with Sprint.  The base iPhone plan is $70/month which is really a $40 voice plan + $30 for unlimited data.  This gets you a measly 450 Anytime Minutes, 5000 Night & Weekend minutes, Unlimited Data and no Text Messaging.  The plan I have right now from Sprint is only $55/month for 1000 Anytime Minutes, Unlimited Night & Weekend minutes, Unlimited Data and also no Text Messaging.  If I wanted to get the same service that I have now with Sprint from AT&T with the iPhone I'd have to go with their $90/month plan which still only has 900 Anytime MInutes.  That makes the iPhone 1.6x more expensive than the Treo 700p that I have now with Sprint.  Such is the price of progress I suppose.  Luckily I barely use any of the 1000 minutes I have now and the base 450 minute plan will be more than enough for me, that's still $15 more than what I have now and includes a lot less.

And don't even get me started on Text Messaging rates. The fact that text messaging is extra when you have an Unlimited Data plan is mind boggling.  Especially since it has virtually zero overhead for the Cell companies.  It's basically a way for them to print money.  The actual network overhead for a text message is less than pretty much any other service they provide on their network - less than voice calls, less than voicemail, less than data (internet) services - yet text messaging @ $0.20 a message costs more than any other service.  Not only that but each message is charged twice: once when it is sent and again when it is received, so that's really $0.40 per message.  It's quite possibly the most expensive form of communication ever invented.  In fact, a professor recently concluded that text messaging is more expensive than communicating with the Hubble Space Telescope!  Four times more expensive to be precise!  Luckily I don't do much, if any, text messaging.  If I did I think I might just go postal.

On top of all of that, AT&T also charges a $36 activation fee for the privilege of becoming their customer.  Yep, you get to pay them an extra $36 for the honor of signing up to a two year contract that at minimum will cost you $1680 over two years.  A $36 fee for the privilege of bending over and taking it for the next two years seems a little over the top, even for AT&T.  But that is the price of progress.

Sadly I'll eventually give in and become a slave to AT&T, but that sure is one damn expensive phone. 

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Comments (4)

	1. 17-07-2008 10:45
	New Sprint Phones I understand your concern on carriers. Sprint doesn't get good phones very often, and I almost decided to switch when ATT released the Tilt. But the old Sprint data plans are very nice.    So, although less sleek, Sprint's Mogul has been able to do pretty much everything the 3G iPhone can do for over a year now. (Plus, you can hack it and load your own ROM on it, as I've done).     But more exciting are two phones that Sprint will be releasing by the end of the year that SHOULD kick the 3G iPhone's butt (of course I haven't seen them yet, so I'll reserve on commiting to that). So google HTC Touch Pro / Raphael and HTC Diamond. There's also some good discussion of them at PPCgeeks.com. http://karlrees.com Guest

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	2. 17-07-2008 15:50
	It's the SDK and the OS While those look like very nice phones the problem from my perspective is that they're all running Windows Mobile. That's not so bad for a lot of people but WM integration with Mac OS X is virtually non-existent. The iPhone on the other hand has excellent integration with the Mac, which should be expected. But aside from that one of the most appealing features for me is its SDK which is basically Mac OS X Lite. As I'm already very familiar with the Mac OS X APIs and developer tools it makes it much easier to jump in and start writing applications for it.    So for me the SDK is the killer application that no other phone will ever come close to. I'm not particularly happy with some of the SDK's restrictions and the closed nature of the App Store, but I can live with it. It's just too bad that I'm going to have to give up my $10 unlimited data plan on Sprint and switch to an expensive AT&T plan. If only Apple would come out with an iPhone for Sprint - AT&T has a 5 year exclusivity agreement to prevent that from happening in the near future.     I don't welcome my new AT&T overlords. http://cutterpillow.com Registered

Dave Thorup

	3. 18-07-2008 18:48
	Android Hmmm. You could solve the integration problem by switching to Windows . Then you could do develop apps with the .NET Compact Framework and/or Java.    But actually, I have to confess that WM is horrid. It speaks volums that HTC has essentially designed a whole new interface to run on top of WM.    Now, what I am interested in is Android. Supposedly, that'll run on HTC's latest devices. http://karlrees.com Guest

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	4. 30-07-2008 12:39
	Vaporware Switching to Windoze is not an option and Windows Mobile is even worse. And Android is really only vaporware at the moment. It's also doubtful that it will integrate well with anything on the Mac when it does ship.    The other problem with Android is that it looks like only parts of it will be implemented on any given device - some devices will have touchscreens and others won't, etc. So as a development platform, at its best it will still be inferior to the iPhone simply because you won't know what hardware or features that you can count on being there. iPhone development has the significant advantage that all iPhones are guaranteed to have a given feature set.    I do, however, hope that Android will bring a bit of competition to the iPhone platform. If Android is somewhat successful then that will hopefully force Apple to open up the iPhone platform a bit - loose some of the restrictions on the SDK and hopefully allow for application distribution outside of their App Store. I really don't see Android becoming widely adopted unless Google decides to develop their own reference gPhone, but Google has stated that they aren't going to do that.     I think that the iPhone SDK, even with its limitations, is far ahead of any other mobile development platform. I also think that it won't be too long before there are more iPhones than there are Macs, and as a software developer that is a big market opportunity not to be missed. http://cutterpillow.com Registered

Dave Thorup

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