While it’s not being talked about too much, the $99 iPhone 3G is a very interesting play by Apple. It takes what was previously a just out-of-reach device for many, and puts it at a magical price-point. Sure, it still won’t sell everyone, like the people who only care about getting the phone that their carrier is offering for free, or those looking for the cheapest possible monthly plans. But just look at the iPhone compared to the other $99 phones out there.
That’s what we did. And originally we set out to compare the various specs. But looking them over, it’s really a joke. And you can basically see all you need to see simply by looking at the devices being offering by the major carriers in the U.S. at this price point.
Of course, there are legitimate iPhone competitors out there, namely the Palm Pre and the soon-to-be-released T-Mobile myTouch 3G. But the Pre sells for $199 (or $299 before rebate) and the myTouch will also cost you $199. That’s iPhone 3GS territory now. This $99 range is a whole different ball game.
When I looked at the $99 phones, I started to think of a high school reunion. Some show up as successful business people, some as boring cookie-cutter suburbanites, some as fat, overweight slobs. And that’s fine. But then there’s that one person who shows up and makes everyone else look worse. Everyone there has something in common (in this case, the high school), but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at this one James Bond-type in the full tuxedo while everyone else is wearing rags. In my opinion, that’s kind of like the $99 iPhone 3G compared to the other $99 phones out there.
Let’s take a look.
AT&T’s $99 Offerings:
James Bond.
The successful business guy. Kind of pudgy, pretty boring.
The less successful but skinnier business guy. A pencilneck.
The guy who thinks he’s James Bond, but bought his tux at the thrift store — and it’s blue.
The guy wearing his clothes from when you were still in high school.
That odd foreign exchange student that no one still wants to talk to even though he’s popular in Europe.
Some crazy-looking dude.
A total square.
That guy who just got out of rehab.
T-Mobile’s $99 Offerings:
The girl was popular in high school but now is just kind of ugly, and oddly shaped.
Another business guy. Bland. Has his family on his “Fave 5″ though.
The short, fat guy with the shiny large head.
Verizon’s $99 Offerings:
Spunky, ditzy, short girl. No one took her seriously then, no one takes her seriously now.
The dude who’s really into guns.
The guy who’s trying too hard.
Again, nice suit — in 1999.
Wanna-be hipster.
The short sidekick of the wanna-be hipster.
Oh God. Don’t talk to this one.
Sprint’s $99 Offerings:
The ugly duckling.
The homeless guy. Hasn’t bathed in months.
Had a bunch of kids at 19. Now divorced and wears bold colors to stand out — which doesn’t work.
Business guy with a big chin and a square head.
The girl with the Coke-bottle thick glasses.
The former high school star quarterback. Still loves sports, but is between crappy jobs.
[Thanks Cameron]
The cost of a single month of the iPhone’s AT&T contract is $100, so why would people care about paying an extra $100 for the phone?
Smart people like myself will still get a phone on ebay, QuickPWN it, and use it with T-Mobile for $24/data + $29/basic, and use the Skype app for long distance. Besides, you would lose all the cool free apps on Cydia.
You know, I hear people talk about this all the time. What I don’t understand is why you would want to hack your phone where a new software update might break it.
Sure it’s a great idea for those of us that are geeks. I hacked my iPhone 3G and had no problems taking it back to the standard install when the new updates came along. I was aware of the consequences and fully accepted them.
The other thing is that while a month of ATT service may cost “you” $100, I am only paying $70. Sure that’s more than the $53 you are saying it would cost for T-Mobile, but not I don’t see how the cost of the service has anything to do with the cost of the handset.
Maybe I am just not seeing your point.
Oh and those cool free apps? What do they really give you that you can’t get from the AppStore other than a little more configurability? I mean, sure they are free, but it you brick your phone beyond repair by hacking it then those apps aren’t free, they cost you the price of a replacement phone. At full price.
Sorry about my twitter link, I cancelled, because I have again realized that Twitter is useless.
OK, so to get to your point Andy,
“The other thing is that while a month of ATT service may cost “you” $100, I am only paying $70. ”
Take the $70+ and tack on the surcharges, and taxes and it will be more like around $100. That’s what the guy at the AT&T store told me when I asked.
“What do they really give you that you can’t get from the AppStore other than a little more configurability? ”
I like to WinSCP into my iPhone with the Cydia SSH server on my wireless network. It’s a lot more convenient than the USB cable. Yes, you should change the root pass from alpine to something else. Use the passwd command.
Um… So, maybe it’s not the twitter… maybe it’s not about the phones….maybe, just maybe, you *don’t “get” the tools.*
The base plan is $68.40 with all taxes, surcharges, everything… not $100.
It was $59 last year. There is nothing else to buy. Only an idiot would add extra text messages or long distance since you have full internet all the time and with that you can do it all.
Rubbish. I pay $60 for my iPhone 3G a month, and my taxes add $6, for a total of $66, not $100. Yes, I moved my iPhone EDGE sim card to my iPhone 3G and it worked, and yes, I get 3G. AT&T called, and I pointed out that I live 100 miles from 3G, and they agreed. I pay EDGE rates because I live in an EDGE area.
One reason Andy, AT&T sucks. Bad coverage, bad customer service, slow internet. Apple would have sold twice as many iPhones if they didn’t have the stupid exclusive deal. Which is funny btw because AT&T promotes the hell out of Blackberry on TV. Reminds me of the early days of the Mac when Apple came into a very large corporation I worked for and said ‘networking? who needs that? Meanwhile, the completely lackluster IBM PC stole the day.
AT&T’s network and service is fine… and keep in mind AT&T is not allowed to advertise the iPhone, and with Verizon (once they get their network up to speed) won’t be able to either. Expect a Verizon iPhone at some point, but Verizon has work to do (4G / LTE) before Apple will allow them.
And no, Apple never said anything remotely close to that about networking. Apple is a pioneer in networks, was the first to have built in networking, first to have ethernet as standard, first to have TCP in the OS, first to have 802.11 as standard, on and on…
I was about to say, from what I recall, Apple was the first to have networking, for us in the PC world we had to use technology from a third party called Novell and it sucked.
I have used AT&T and Verizon multiple times for personal and business accounts. Based on my experience it is fairly easy to provide a better customer service than Verizon. The service itself, I was not okay with AT&T years ago but I am satisfied with their service with our multiple iPhone accounts during the course of last 12 months.
I have used AT&T and Verizon multiple times for personal and business accounts. Based on my experience it is fairly easy to provide a better customer service than Verizon. The service itself, I was not okay with AT&T years ago but I am satisfied with their service with our multiple iPhone accounts during the course of last 12 months.
seriously what a waste of money….
$24 data plus $29 for the Tmobile service? IS that what you are saying. $53 gives you what???
Mills
Does this mean that when you’re with your iPhone, you’re having an identity crisis?
… really?
Yes.
The article was interesting, but the most entertaining thing for me was that someone used power point to make the graphics, and when they took screen shots they forgot to hide the red squiggles indicating “spelling mistakes”….Awesome simply awesome.
yeah, powerpoint can’t spell in phone.
exactly my thoughts… but i guess we have come to expect this these days…
i was wondering if I was the only one that say that
The $99 is kind of irrelevant. You really need to compare 2 years of cost. I almost fell for this and was going to get one for my daughter, then did the math. I think she’s now “dating” the former star quarterback
But what’s the likelihood she’ll be happy with him in 2 years?
She’ll need to be until she pays
When most people think of a “$99 phone” or a “free phone”, they’re thinking of featurephones that only require a ~ $40/mo contract. Your comparison has a mix of featurephones and smartphones (that require a data plan under contract: total ~ $70/mo). You really should be comparing only to smartphones, or if you really wanted to compare against featurephones, you should include the TCO over 2 years.
If I was AT&T, I might consider offering something along the lines of: “Switch to AT&T from another carrier and we will give you a free iphone”
Basically would have AT&T just eating the 100$ fee in exchange for getting tons of new customers to them.
That would be a good plan, I think. But I don’t see AT&T doing it considering they wouldn’t eat the subsidy cost to rope in most current iPhone 3G owners for another 2 years.
They already got those people. They know their iPhone customer — they will cry and whine, but at the end, just get another iPhone at the end of their contract.
It’s actually an amusing article. A little bit annoying having to scroll but still pretty good
yeah, there are a lot of $99 offerings. thanks for making it to the end.
Are you serious? Between this and the post about getting laid (http://www.tech...laid-after-all/), I just can’t take you guys seriously anymore.
And I say this as a *fan* of MG Siegler and the recent direction the site has taken with more opinion articles. This is just too much though — do you still want to be a reputable tech news blog or not?
I think this is one of those obvious things that’s hard to dispute. Which $99 gives you more than an iPhone 3G? Do you really think there is one? The only ones that maybe come even a tiny bit close are a couple of the BlackBerrys, but not really.
You (and I hope your readers) certainly understand that these so-called “price points” for purchasing the phones are really trivial in light of how much you’ll be paying in fees over the next two years. Why would any moron pay $99 for an old iPhone when for $99 more he can get a 3GS? What’s another $99 in the $2400 scheme of things?
Oh, I’m not denying that it’s probably the best $99 phone out there, by far. But as others have mentioned, you neglect to mention the hugely important data cost aspect. My entire family now has iPhones, but only mine was bought from Apple/AT&T – the others were all gotten from Craigslist because they can’t justify $720 of data they’ll almost never use.
However, what I found unprofessional was the far-too-lengthy description of phones as reunion attendees — sure a couple would be amusing, I thought that was overkill.
Well okay but considering I call the iPhone James Bond in the title, not sure why you were reading this as a “professional” post. I do deep analysis sometimes, sometime I do things that are just more fun.
But in terms of the data, I do mention in paragraph 1: “Sure, it still won’t sell everyone, like the people who only care about getting the phone that their carrier is offering for free, or those looking for the cheapest possible monthly plans.”
The fact of the matter is that all smartphone plans are pretty expensive. Yes, AT&T’s iPhone plan is among the highest, but they’re also subsidizing a phone that is clearly much more valuable than all the other ones on this list down to $99.
It’s a fair point, but not really what I was getting into here.
Why do everybody talk about data plan ?
The point is : for $99, you have a phone, a portable video game console and and iPod. Dont even consider data plan, this iPhone is perfect for the teens that don’t need to browse the internet. There are new parental options since OS 3, so… you can consider it as a basic phone with great entertainment feature.
Look at the iPod price, look at the Nintendo DS or PSP price, look at a basic phone price, add them and just consider that for the hardware you get, it’s pretty cheap.
I really wonder how many Iphone 3G Apple will sell for $99. It will be interesting to see if people just consider the 3GS because it’s the brand new hype.
Because it isn’t a $99 phone. It’s a $2400 “relationship”. I can buy the PSP, the touch and a “good enough phone” for my kids for a lot less.
@thanks Mark for clarifying!!
A point it seems they all don’t get. How can you compare the basic price of a phone where you know you have to pay a lot more then with any other phone every month and call it an analysis?
I don’t think you can get the $99 subsidized price without agreeing to the data plan.
It’s too bad, it would be a nice alternative to carrying a phone plus an iPod Touch.
What better way to show value than comparing phones not based on any kind of specs but instead on outward appearances and completely ignoring customer needs?
How much value is an iPhone if your employer is on a different network, or you need a full keyboard? What if your employer doesn’t allow a camera on your mobile device? As others have pointed out, what about cost of ownership?
The iPhone is Razr V3 all over again. Soon everyone will have one and it will lose novelty. This is the typical vapid trendiness that will keep me from buying an Apple product.. ever.
TC seems to be going downhill. Close to taking you guys off my daily read.
Your loss, big time. I’d never go back to the other guys (Windows or any other phone/MP3).
And yet you’ll be back here tomorrow, and the next day reading it.
Nothing about Virgin Mobile and Kyocera?
We stuck to the big boys. Any $99 you like from them?
I got the Omnia from Verizon for $99. It compares quite well to the 3G and even beats the 3GS in some areas (5MP camera that records and edits video, multi-tasks, etc.), but lacks compass and verizon sucks rocks for locking GPS. I only pay $55 a month for full unlimited data and 450 minutes, so I’d only switch if ATT improves their network considerably and drops their prices on service plans.
Ummmm you were supposed to say no.. wth man you don’t wanna be cool?
Ravi dude, lighten up! It’s sunday. Not every day has to be high-strung-tight-as-a-whistle-I-gotta-do-business day…
Are we still talking about the iPhone?
I note that you have used in your article the term of derision, “pencil neck.” In fact, there actually is a genetic trait which results in a very long and rather thin neck. I have met two people with this condition. Perhaps in the future you will consider using the term, “guy with the pocket protector” or something similar, rather than a term that refers to a physical characteristic which one certanly cannot change.
Unix Guy
Interestingly, you don’t object to the derisive fat comments. Why not?
What about BB Bold? It’s in same price range here in Slovenia. I would think it fits in $99 ?
I traded my iPhone for BBB and don’t regret it at all. It’s not as fun as iPhone but it really simplifies contact management, mailing, organizing etc.
This is a strictly US dealio. Every single phone on that list is available for free with max £35/40 contract in the UK. I’ve got the HTC Magic for £30 (unlim txt & data and 300 min) without any upfront charge (plus the phone shop gave me a £70 cash rebate just to cover getting out of my old contract)…
*every single phone except the sidekick – that crazy shit never took off here.
Funny. Best phone depiction was about the guy who wants to be James Bond, buys the tux and then it turns out to be blue.
This would be news if the iPhone was sold for $99, unlocked and with no contract. Actually, it would be the news item of the year if they sold it unlocked without a contract for even $399.
Apple already dominates the market with the iPhone. I’m not sure how much more market they will be able to capture before they drop the AT&T hooks.
This looks like an article right out of a school magazine! But I like the writer’s defending skills though.
The last couple or more of articles he’s written are absolute trash, but he rises to defend them with swagger.
Suddenly I’m losing a liiiiitle bit of the esteem I had for TechCrunch. I’m beginning to see it as a Google defender and an Apple marketer. ONLY.
Agreed. But what can we do? there aren’t any other tech websites out there…Oh, hi Gizmodo, ArsTechnica how are you? Slashdot you seem swell, Engadget you’re quite the charming fellow aren’t you, Cnet long time no see- never mind then, later.
mindless dribble
Where do you get mindful drivel? Walmart?
uhm.. can’t comment on US prices. But i can get either the HTC G1, or HTC Magic for free in the UK, on t-mobile or vodafone respectively, on tarrifs that are cheaper or equivelant costs to the iphone tarrif.
These are both google android phones, which compare very very favourably to iphones… except of course android is open source, meaning you’re not tied to apple’s whimsical restrictions, and a higher percentage of apps on the android app store are free.
Even the iPhone is free at £35 on 02. That’s only 800 over the life of the 24mo contract (you can usually lower your tariff for the last 6 months). If you’re willing to hand over money for the phone you can go even lower.
The US gets ripped off for phone usage.
funny MG
Very funny article, and some of the comments are funnier.
Especially the people who are saying “look at the total cost of ownership”. I don’t know about US prices, but here in the UK, the price tariffs for the iPhone are pretty much the same as for other phones with the same number of minutes and the same number of txts. The difference was the price of the handset — which is what the article is about.
For what it’s worth, I was already on the iPhone tariff with O2 before the original iPhone came out. They gave me a Motorola KRZR in the with the contract a year before. I really was very, very glad to get rid of it. Internet access never worked properly, peripherals were non-existent, and its comparatively sparse features were an utter nightmare to navigate. Not a difficult decision to go with the iPhone, really.
Great post.
Hilarious!
I couldn’t stop reading the commentary for all the “wimps”
bravo!
The G1 can be found for $99 at various retailers.
Okay, then the G1 is like the really smart guy who is a complete and utter slob.
HA! Indeed.
rofl so true
And can’t get a date.
Great post, lots of funny stuff
Good job.
Superficial.
I care about specific features, others don’t interest me. My love is a little fat and a little old, a marvelous lover, great cook and parent, has a wonderful sense of humor, is responsible, employed and a person of character and substance.
I consider it a plus that this is a person with appetites. And we all age if we survive.
Now what do these phones do for me? I don’t really care what they look like.
I still miss my T68i
Is it possible to buy the iPhone for $99 without signing the AT&T plan?
No, unsubsidized price is pretty ridiculous, $600 or something.
no, that’s what ebay and craig’s list is for…
get an unlocked one and use it on tmobile.
I don’t think this is a valid comparison because the real cost of the iPhone comes from the data plan, not from the phone itself.
At $30/month for data, you spend $360/year, or $720 over the life of the contract, just on data.
To me, the valid comparison would be to take the incremental cost of the iPhone and the data plan, and compare it to a normal phone. The real question for me comes down to whether that $720 + phone cost is worth having the iPhone or not.
Completely agree with Ankit. A comparison of the total cost over ownership of all these phones would be genuinely interesting. Whereas this is just pointless.
I want the one that comes with the guns
Remember pagers? At first only the cool and important people had pagers. Then everyone had pagers. Then we found out that the people who were really cool and important didn’t need one.
Quality > Quantity. The quality of techcrunch is going down with all these small snippets and constant reproduction of iphone stories.
Ok we get it – You love the iPhone. Jesus christ. Do we need 5 posts a day saying the same thing?
ugh, are we really defining people by the type of cell phone they have?
Hell Yeah! That’s how we do it!
No, we’re defining phones by the types of people we all know.
26 phones… 26 phones. really? it was cute at first… but you kind of sound like a prick by the end of it.
No need to diss the E71.
It is a fabulous phone, I use one for the past 6 months, and i simply love it.
it’s small, usable, has plenty of features and it’s PRACTICAL.
Sorry man, iPhone is not james bond – it’s Parker Lewis.
Its neat, cool, even kewl, but at the end of the day – it’s still a big brick.
To conclude – the E71 is a success story, not because of the buzz it created, but for being the great phone that it really is (and excuse me for not buying an iPhone just so my friends (though i don’t have much left) could think i’m so cool).
What is an E71? I have to admit, catchy name there. I bet it is a real iPhone killer… LOL
Agreed MG. iPhone is indeed James Bond. None can match its looks or style. Only thing is the AT&T service is a little bit on the sloppy side. Of course, battery life, speed are other things. Still the Apps store has plenty to offer and you can always sport all those funny, funky free apps on your iPhone. I’m sure there will be takers for the other schoolmates (because that is life), still none can stand up against the black tuxedo man!
Atleast the $120 chinese iPhone fakes are out of business now!
I don’t get it! How could anybody be so stupid and think, “Woow, $99.00 for an IPhone. That is cheap. Now I get one!”!
It’s not the price for the phone (In other countries you get the 3G S for 1,- EUR) but the 2 year contract that is the important part here.
Ha Ha yeh but how many of those phones have had cut and paste for the last 2 years……
STFU fanboy.
True, Dean… but its about NOW, as of TODAY. I’ve heard with the new 3.0 software update, the iPhone 3GS and 3G is pretty damn perfect. I got a hand me down Sony Ericsson W550, after I gave up on my horrid Blackberry, with a new contract pending, the iPhone and Pre are the ONLY two phones that has been recommended by friends and business colleagues alike, and most across the internet. There’s a lot that has to be said when the general population pitches it so adamantly. I’m trying to keep an open mind here. I think the only thing I would ask from the iPhone is an FM radio. I’m old so I’m not into trendy or the recent rave like the younger kids, but it’s hard to look away when certain products have a massive, and I mean MASSIVE appeal. Perhaps its time to go to the Apple store and really play with a 3G to see what the fuss is all about.
Pandora is really sweet on the iPhone. You can think of it like radio, only there are ’stations’ that play only certain types of music (patterned after a song or an album) with no commercials.
I thought the article was rather creative. I was doing research for a new smartphone (cellular contract is up) and came across this article, made me laugh. $99 iPhone 3G is looking better everyday. Thanks.
My Blackberry Pearl was due for an upgrade.. and yup, I was lured in by said $99 iPhone. Great device, but like Bond, its really all about *looking* good.
I have another week to decide – but there’s a high chance that the 3G is going back to ATT. I think some of those “businessmen” do their jobs alot more – Bond is out there galavanting a bit too much for a smartphone.
James Bond would surely have been a blackberry man (8900), considering its rigorous security yet large array of toys, along with the slick look.
On his days off he’d probably roll around with a silver plated Vertu.
If you are judging others (or maybe even worse, yourself), by the phone they carry, then you are a pretty shallow person.
It’s people like this author who make iPhone users look like elitist assholes.
Way to reinforce the stereotype of Apple users as being self-absorbed douchebags.
iPhone is all hype. Apple is a marketing machine, the Coca-Cola of the new Millenium. Once the polish fades, people will realize that mobile phones are commodities and Apple will come back to Earth.
ask questions, get answers and share your opinions at http://www.rankkit.com
Laughed out loud at the phone captions. And, yes, I could peg every one to a specific person in my grad class.
MG do you have shares in Apple or is your salary partly paid by Apple?
You articles are so poor that evena six year old would find them getting D grades for their lack of any analysis.
It’s a poor reflection on Tech Crunch that you are still employed by them.
actually you aren’t even considering that IPhone data plan is more expensive than other ATT Smartphones
some of the data plans are only 20 bucks a month compared to 39 -
Good stuff MG. I’m still a bit unclear if this pricing goes on forever, or will they discontinue the 3G once their stocks run out. I’d guess they’ll stop it after the next iPhone is announced next year.