iPhone 3G Pay As You Go pricing announced?
AppleInsider reports on O2’s apparent announcement of its much-anticipated Pay-As-You-Go pricing plans for the forthcoming iPhone 3G, although at the time of writing it seems details have disappeared from the network’s website.
According to the usually-very-reliable news site, the next-generation handset will retail without a monthly call plan and minimum contract for £299.99 for the 8GB model, and £359.99 for the 16GB model.
In keeping with the often-confusing array of ‘add-on’ deals for those who top-up regularly, Pay-As-You-Go iPhone customers will be able to take advantage of various bonus features including free minutes and texts, as well as unlimited data for an initial 6 month period before being required to top-up by an additional amount per month to maintain unlimited data usage.
Read the full details at AppleInsider, and hopefully O2 will reinstate this information on its site asap.
Is the UK the cheapest place to own an iPhone?
Apple has taken a lot of stick over the years for apparently high pricing, particularly in the UK, where products can feel disproportionately expensive when compared to a flat exchange-rate based comparison with their US counterparts. Apple has historically responded by pointing out the additional associated costs with retailing in the UK, most notably the addition of VAT to the published sale price (remember many US states add on sales tax at the point of sale, unlike in the UK where VAT will already be displayed with the RRP).
When the original iPhone came out, it seemed the UK was destined to be second-best once again when it came to pricing. But with the announcement of the iPhone 3G, and with it Apple’s decision to concede to the mobile operators and allow subsidized pricing, long a staple of the UK mobile market, things appear to have changed. Based on the limited information currently available about international operator’s tariffs (many are yet to publish exact details), it appears the UK stacks up very well against a couple of the biggest equivalents, Germany and the US.
At £99 for the basic 8Gb model on the cheapest tariff (£30 per month) over a minimum 18 month term, that works out as a total cost of ownership of just £639 - assuming of course you never incur additional charges for blowing through the admittedly miserly 75 minutes and 125 texts bundled in here.
Even adding an extra £5 a month to the tariff and still paying the £99 up front, your total cost of ownership (TCO) is still only £729, and that tariff bags you a much more realistic 600 minutes and 500 texts. At £45 per month, the phone won’t cost you a dime, and over the lifetime of the contract you’ll spend £810, enjoying 1200 minutes and 500 texts for your troubles.
In Germany on T-Mobile’s tariffs, on the lowest tariff (’Complete S’) you’ll spend approx. £135 to own the phone, and over the 24-month minimum term rack up a TCO of £687. This doesn’t compare too badly with O2, until you see that on this tariff you’ll get just 50 minutes, no inclusive texts, and a 500MB cap on data. In fact to even come close to the bundled minutes and texts O2 offers, you’ll need to take out the Complete XL package, at an equivalent £71 per month, paying a princely 79p for the phone, and racking up a TCO of £1,705 - with 1,000 minutes and 300 texts to play with, plus unlimited data.
In the States it seems there’s still a lot of confusion over tariffs, as AT&T is moving people onto more standard tariffs across its range. From what I could gather, the basic phone price on the cheapest voice + data plans works out at $199 or £102 for the phone up-front, and approx. £31 per month for 450 minutes and 200 texts. Again, you’ll take out a 24-month term, meaning the TCO is a corking £846.
Of course these numbers are skewed by the 18/24-month element of TCO, but even so, it strikes me that for once the UK’s deal is one of the best in the world, even including the States. We’ll continue to keep an eye out as more carriers reveal their tariffs.