Cost of Owning An iPhone, Palm Pre, Android Compared

By Thursday June 11, 2009

So, which one are you gonna buy? Or have bought?



59 Comments
  1. Named says:
    6/11/2009 at 10:40 am

    38,

    The basic cost in Ontario is 6.95 for system access fee and 50c for 9/11. After that, it’s all over the place!

    But, I can get a reasonable 250 minutes and free evenings (6pm – 8am) and weekends for 25 dollars more than above. Plus tax.

    Though, our European friends get free INCOMING calls which is so LOGICAL no one in North American has asked for it.

    Reply
  2. MikeN says:
    6/11/2009 at 11:46 am

    How does that compare to $15 a month for phone calls and $10 for the phone?

    Reply
  3. David says:
    6/11/2009 at 12:11 pm

    This article has nothing to do with the phones mentioned. They’re all close to the same price.

    Instead, this article is about the different cell providers usage rates. Sprint is cheapest because it’s horrible customer “service” alienated so many people, and they’re the only company that’s actually losing customers.

    I have an iPhone and pay $65 a month after taxes for 450 minutes of voice, unlimited data, and 200 text messages. I wish it were cheaper, but it’s less than half the prices quoted here.

    Reply
  4. Cephus says:
    6/11/2009 at 12:16 pm

    #33: What’s wrong with my Palm? Nothing whatsoever, except that Palm decided to stop supporting it and now that I’m using Vista, you can no longer hotsync it via USB. I’m now having to keep an old laptop running in order to keep syncing my and my wife’s Palms. The time will come, however, that it will die and I want to have moved on by then, unfortunately I hate all the options I currently have for moving.

    Reply
  5. Cephus says:
    6/11/2009 at 12:39 pm

    zokor: I looked at all of the phones you mentioned, none of them would work for me. They’ve got a ton of bells and whistles I don’t want and none of the things I do. The Nokia E97 doesn’t appear on the Nokia website at all, I was looking for actual tech specs and all I could find online was a bunch of ridiculous fapping over how it looks.

    Like I said, the Pre, if they can fix it and if I can get an unlocked one to use on T-Mobile at a decent price, might be the best way to go, Palm has already announced that they’d be doing an emulator that will run all of the software I’ve already got and really don’t want to have to re-write all of my databases that I just got working right again.

    Reply
  6. Richard says:
    6/11/2009 at 1:10 pm

    I would love one but the monthly fees are just way too high. Especially since I hardly make a phone call…

    Reply
  7. George says:
    6/11/2009 at 1:48 pm

    The best deal for me was to unlock an iPhone and put it on TMobile.

    My wife wanted an iPhone more for fashion than anything. She didn’t talk much on the phone she had, and wasn’t going to use the web-enabled apps that often.

    We were already on a TMobile family plan for $49.95/mo for two phones. I found a 16GB 2G iPhone on Ebay for $330. Jailbreaking and unlocking were free. I added a 100Mb/mo data plan for $9.99, and everything works except for visual voicemail.

    So, my costs over 24 months are:

    $330 iPhone
    $600 1/2 of family Voice Plan (500min/mo)
    $240 data plan (100Mb/mo)

    $1170 Total.

    Reply
  8. Hmeyers says:
    6/11/2009 at 2:34 pm

    I pay $6.66 a month for my cell phone.

    Smart phone? No. Smart customer? Yes.

    The only thing that makes something a phone is that it can make phone calls!

    Reply
  9. Buzz says:
    6/11/2009 at 2:42 pm

    B- b- b- but what if I don’t let Sprint’s cheap everything unlimited plan define my needs? I have an iPhone and so does my wife, and the whole cost for the both of us is less than the monthly cost quoted here.

    And as of the last bill, I still have over 7,000 rollover minutes.

    And besides, where am I going to find a crowd of friends who will stink with envy when I show up sporting my new Pre and both of its killer aps?

    Reply
  10. Johan says:
    6/11/2009 at 3:00 pm

    Why do they compare the G1 with the not-even-released iPhone 3gs, when they could’ve used the HTC Magic instead. I don’t get it.

    Reply
  11. WhiteyMcBrown says:
    6/11/2009 at 4:25 pm

    To be fair, the iPhone is at 32GB and all music stores/app stores are not equal. I’m a huge iPhone fan, though…. 2nd place goes to Palm Pre. The Google phone is underwhelming.

    Reply
  12. Uncle Dave says:
    6/11/2009 at 4:44 pm

    #50: Because these are the three big boys that everyone is writing about. Everything else is… everything else.

    Reply
  13. Joe says:
    6/11/2009 at 5:44 pm

    Cost of owning a Sciphone:

    Phone $100
    8 GB card $20
    Prepaid 1000 minutes, $100 x 3 times/year = $300 x 2 years = $600
    Total $720.

    PS: David Lynch says…

    Reply
  14. ECA says:
    6/11/2009 at 9:28 pm

    I wonder which would be BEST PRICED, if they were sold at 2 times Manufactured price.
    Also arnt they on the Ver.2-3 hardware on the iphone??

    Reply
  15. ECA says:
    6/11/2009 at 9:29 pm

    Insted of the 5-10 times cost of building the unit..

    Reply
  16. orangetiki says:
    6/12/2009 at 10:45 am

    Honestly the only thing that , to me, makes one look like a better deal then the other is the carrier’s plans. Obviously the sprint looks the cheapest because they have a complete package plan when AT&T forces you to peacemeal everything. I’m an iPhone user and I am happy that I am. I sure as heck don’t have the unlimited text and minute plan. I get 500 minutes a month with 200 text, and I pay 80. The best deal will always be the one where you buy only what you need..

    Reply
  17. ECA says:
    6/12/2009 at 12:18 pm

    Problem ?I see with itunes/Iphone and the rest is dealing with APPLE and itunes.
     
    They have messed up itunes before and screwed up alot of ipods.  esp the shuffle.
    Insted of dealing with JUST the phone seller, you are dealing witht he phone dealer, the Phone corp(ATT, or whom ever) then with Apple then with itunes.  ANY of which could say GOODBYE and you have a brick.  Any of these could mess up or quit working, and you are STUCK.  You are already dealing with 2 versions of the hardware, as well as 3 major patches..  And if you dont have itunes you arent SUPPOSED to have other “un-apple-registered” programs or music on the device.
    APPLE has the right to ERASE any music or programs off your iphone/ipod device it deems NOT to back or is illegal.  READ the EULA.

    Reply
  18. ThisSucks says:
    6/12/2009 at 9:42 pm

    I stick to my 2 years old TyTN II, thank you.
    None of the above can do half, and iPhone without cut/paste is the worst all of them.

    Reply
  19. pedro says:
    6/13/2009 at 1:38 am

    #13 HTC Touch Pro 2. That’s the ticket.
     
    #38 You forgot “death to America” yet again.
     
    #52 Well, they should seriously have a look at the HTC Touch Pro 2…oh, wait! Not available in the US. Sorry you have to get put up with mac & its oy!Phone instead.
     
    #58 Check the phone I’m referring to. I’ve stuck with my ipaq 6315 for the same reasons as you until this baby came up

    Reply

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