Year 1 with an Apple iPhone = US$1936

all

Posted Wednesday, 6 June 2007, 09:42 HST @738

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.

Tags: Apple, data, hardware, Internet, iPhone, iPod, mobile, software, USA, usability, value-chain

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3 responses so far ↓

1 Anticipation builds for Apple's iPhone // Sunday, 17 June 2007, 16:25 HST @017

[…] It’s worth noting the the Chronicle’s story spawned a long trail of comments, many of which disputed CenterNetwork’s US$1936 estimate for a user’s first year of iPhone service. I mentioned that figure in my June 6 post. […]
2 iPhone rate plans to be announced within a week // Thursday, 21 June 2007, 10:20 HST @764

[…] to the mark. Until we see the new rate plans, we won’t know. I commented on this figure on June 6, and I have a feeling he’s right. […]
3 iPhone rate plans released // Wednesday, 27 June 2007, 20:30 HST @187

[…] I mentioned on June 6 that two web sites (Consumerist and CenterNetworks) predicted that the first year cost of iPhone service would be US$1936. […]