According to Allen Stern at CenterNetworks, early adopters of the Apple iPhone will pay US$1936 during the first year. That includes the sales price of the phone, plus AT&T’s calling plan.
This does not include the data plan pricing, which has not been announced by AT&T. The iPhone is being marketed as a data-centric iPod with a GSM phone. An iPhone without a data plan cannot use the Internet at all.
Thus, Stern speculates that early adopters will not be happy with their August AT&T bills.
I’m happy with my T-Mobile Sidekick 3, even with its limited software, so I’ll let Apple, AT&T and their customers thrash around for a year or so.
Meanwhile, MacRumors claims that AT&T is tweaking its EDGE data service and adding T-1 connections to its facilities in advance of the June 29th iPhone launch.
iPhones will use the older EDGE protocol instead of 3G services. 3G services are faster than EDGE, but AT&T has decent EDGE coverage in and around major cities.
EDGE can provide download speeds of 200 kbps. AT&T is working towards Apple’s minimum standard of 80 kbps.
MacRumors claims that AT&T has been averaging 40 kbps with EDGE, which seems right to me, based on my experiences with the Cingular 8125. At least that device had a real keyboard. I’ve tried screen-based keyboards on the 9125, PDAs and Tablet PCs, and I never liked them.
The Apple iPhone, of course, has a screen-based keyboard. No touch typing for you, Steve Jobs.
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