New Pricing Model for iPhone?

[Mr__Bill]

Quite frankly the last cell phone that did what I want was a Moto Flip Phone, from about 1995. I could hear the caller and didn't have to shout to be heard.

Remember when the phone companies advertised, "you can hear a pin drop"? Now it's, "can you hear me now?". With the high and low end clipped and the middle compressed I can hardly tell just who is calling by the voice. Every one sounds about the same and often someone else can be heard in the background as crosstalk.

Now the cell phone does a lot but none of it well and it really aggravates me that as my eyes get worse the print on the displays gets smaller. And the worst of it is, I really could not do what I do for a living without one!

Bill

[chopnhack]

IPhone + Jailbreak = greatest phone ever! I've used every style phone there is and the iPhone is the best (if money's not an object ). as far as it goes verses android... the iPhone is soooo much smoother and snappier to operate... as far as the app rules go... that's why I said iPhone PLUS jailbreak equals the greatest phone ever... there's not too much you cant do!

true enough until you need to update the phone and Apple wipes jailbreak off of your phone. This happened to a friend of mine recently.

[leehljp]

Getting back to the theme of this - AT&T's high priced (and required) unlimited data plan . . . this all goes to show how short sited the ENTIRE industry has been (similarly to the Music Industry Pundits). They are all reaping the results of their own egotism. As Ballmer said about Window's 7 - We learned a lesson that we can't just develop something and throw it over the wall and expect people to use it. (because of who WE are)

No one (but Apple) saw that people in general would love to have a phone that could do all the things they would like to do easily and effortless. Sure all of the smart phones "could" get on the internet, "could" do many many things, the problem was - this "could do" was a selling feature that the company, developers, salesmen and many IT people knew was not a true viable feature for the end user. WITH this cultural mindset in the corporate AT&T world (and tech corporate world) no one expected a mini computer (iPhone) to really work like a mini computer or as fast or as easy or as interactive.

The result was that they deemed Apple users overall as a high end users and as mentioned in a previous post above, decided to charge a large fee and give unlimited data. Never did they expect Apple to create something that the end user would love. That became their (AT&T's almost) waterloo - because no one else at, that time, was using huge amounts of streaming data on a phone on a regular basis.

The phone and wireless industry needs to wake up to the future. It is here now. In is not a matter of features available but the end user interactivity that is so important. Window Mobile, WebOS, Symbian, RIM, All developed with a concept that basically was like Ballmer's statement of developing behind a wall and throwing it over the wall for people to use. Android is going a different route (similar to Apple's) but even then the development of Android had some inside information (or at least concepts) from the beginning. Bear in mind that some of Androids basic concepts came from Google's CEO being on Apple's board for several years.

AT&T opened the door to Apple, put huge limits with pricing, and got caught with their pants down in the unexpected use for the marketplace (consumer) person.

Many writers who do not like Apple slam the company as producing esthetically appealing products with no substance. The fact is, although the iPhone gets this rap too, it is the functionality that has moved it into the limelight.

. . . FUNCTIONALITY for the end user, what the corporate techworld forgot and it is eating AT&T's lunch. AT&T is loathed by many users for their poor service but the reality is that if Apple had gone with a different network, say Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, these companies would be having the SAME problems. It is the cell phone streaming data for which that the cell phone industry was unprepared. It is not that AT&T had a poorer network, it is that their network is overtaxed because of a simple device that works so well and caught everyone off guard.

[jussi]

true enough until you need to update the phone and Apple wipes jailbreak off of your phone. This happened to a friend of mine recently.

If you need to upgrade you have to get it back to factory settings, upgrade, then wait for the updated jail break software.

[leehljp]

AT&T got caught unprepared with the "unlimited" data plan . . . but look at what is about to open to wired (cable/connected) data:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/...le-live-video/

Yes, this has been around, but the ease of use has been on about the same level as programming and using a VCR of DVDR - outside the grasp of the average user.

[gerti]

If AT&T didn't see the bandwidth demands in pre-sales testing, they certainly became aware of them in the first weeks after sales began. That was 2.5 years ago. They had plenty of time since.

And WRT usability lets face it: most phones come with buggy software and "features" that are barely usable, assuming one can find them in the first place in a menu system that makes little sense. Apple built a phone with the user in mind first. Something many users asked for for a long time. Something Nokia, Ericson etc could have done too, but they were to set in their ways: barely working hardware, half working software, fast turnaround and new models every few months. No phone was ever fully developed, getting bugfixes was near impossible. I remember my tremendous disappointment about how useless my T68i was back then.

The wireless carriers got lazy. They were used to making a mint on text messaging (essentially free bandwidth that otherwise goes to waste) and ridiculously priced "ring tones".

Apple built a phone that lets the consumer finally actually use all the features the carriers have been advertising for many years. And now that the users are using those features, they are the bad mean bandwidth hogs that screw it up for everybody else? Give me a break. It's not like they are getting it for free. $30/month "forced" data fee on the iPhone.

AT&T had plenty of time to strengthen their network. You'd think they would have done that, especially in the high profile markets like NY or the bay area (which coincidentally had a major AT&T outage today).

AT&T has over 6 million active iPhone users to date. If we just take the $30 data portion these users pay every month, that is more than $2billion/year. Enough to add some infrastructure I'd think.