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Apple and AT&T Announce iPhone Service Plans
daveschroeder writes "Apple and AT&T today announced service plans for iPhone, 4 days before its release in the US at 6pm local time on Friday, June 29. The plans are $59.99/mo for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes, and $99.99 for 1350 minutes, and all include unlimited data, 200 SMS messages, rollover minutes, and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Any other standard AT&T service plan may also be used. A two year service plan is required, with a $175 cancellation fee if terminated early. In addition, activations are done via iTunes, so only the hardware is purchased in the store. Interestingly, activation of a contract via iTunes is required to enable the iPod/syncing functionality of the phone as well. (It will remain to be seen whether there are workarounds for this for those who only want the iPod functionality of iPhone, and whether the iPhone is easily unlockable for those who wish to try it on alternate carriers, and so on.)"
I don't understand the part about users "only wanting the iPod functionality of the iPhone". Why not just buy an iPod then?
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Dave, seriously. You are being trolled. Don't egg them on or they'll keep pestering you.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
If the phone calls will be running on voIP, which is *data*, then technically there should be no monthly limit on minutes. Who wants to be the first to try this out?
I think you may have just hit on the very reason why Apple isn't supporting 3rd party apps. I'll bet the deal with AT&T had some sort of language to prevent this very thing since many of the iPhone's coolest features require a lot of data access. Since non-unlimited data plans are nightmarishly expensive if you're a heavy web user (like I am), it seems almost a prerequisite that iPhone plans come with unlimited data.
Naturally, this opens up the very possibility you just mentioned, so both AT&T and Apple are probably very keen on making sure that it doesn't happen. Hence, no iPhone SDK for 3rd parties. All the bluster about controlling the experience is probably just that -- bluster meant to distract from the real issue.
Why else would Apple cripple a brand new platform that could fuel a rush of developers for them except to appease AT&T?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Well, you'll lose the Visual Voicemail system - you can always just call the VM number to check messages like everyone else does today.
Unless there's someway to tether the iphone to a laptop and use it as a modem or something, I highly doubt that you'd use enough bandwitdth for them to think about turning you off.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
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Don't worry about it man,
They wouldn't understand "change" if it bit them in the ass.
So they take it out on the people who happen to see the big picture.
btw. I see that the new "chocolate" phone (coming out shortly, I guess) from one of the other carriers will now start supporting transfer of music from the computer onto the phone. Where did they get that idea, and how did they ever find engineers that could accomplish such an amazing feat? And only a dozen months after they released their original music playing phone!
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Defining "unlimited data" should be easy:
Maximum transfer rate per second * 60 seconds * 60 minutes * 24 hours * 31 days.
That should give you your monthly limit.
Anything below that should be called "limited".
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Well, again, the issue is more with AT&T as a wireless carrier. I had them and their service was really crappy, at least where I lived at the time. Dropped calls, 'static', etc., despite all of their advertisements as having 'fewer dropped calls' than other carriers. If Apple went with a different carrier, I would get one of these in a minute. I've had good success with Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile ... AT&T, forget it. That's on top of the fact that they fully supported the illegal NSA wiretapping, which, in itself is unforgivable in my book.
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Can this bring to an end the theory the phones are, in fact subsidized? $60 is a reasonable price IMHO for voice plus unlimited data. I don't really use the phone part of my phone that often, so the plan is perfect.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The amount of iPhone articles are rediculous. I don't really care much for a new phone that has weaker specs than existing phones that has been on the market for months. So the iPhone has a touchscreen instead of buttons, whoopiedoo! That should not earn it seven articles per week. Every week. The real story is not the iPhone, it is how Apple has managed to buy every tech related media outlet out there to run articles about the iPhone for them.
Football Odds
Ohh..that's another show stopper for me on the iPhone. I've always been with Sprint, but, I've NEVER given them my SS#. When I started, I refused, and I was happy to give them a cash deposit...which about a year later I got refunded.
Can you not do this with AT&T? I don't hand out my SS unless it is required for SS taxation....or maybe for a credit check to say...buy a house.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Problem is you are using a check list style comparison. While sometimes these are useful let clearly indicate a case when they are not.
Bentley Vs My Car (VW Passat)
Both have 4 doors. Tie
Both Seat 5 People. Tie
Both drive on the same roads and get the passengers from A to B. Tie
Fuel Consumption. My car is better. Win my car
Price. My car is about 1/10th the price. Win my car
Speed, the Bentley is faster although given both a limited most of the time by the law and traffic conditions. Just win for the Bentley
Space. Win Bentley
Insurance cost. Win my car.
So is my car better then a Bentley. Nope although it is better value then a Bentley. It also doesn't go into all the little detail that make a Bentley better quality of finish etc. just like you fail to mention the experience of using the iPhone.
"- Since one would presume the iPod functionality of the device still needs to work when the contract expires, there is probably going to be a fairly easy hack/workaround to use only the iPod functionality (e.g., perhaps just a file sitting somewhere, a la .AppleSetupDone)."
Why would one presume this, Dave? It's a cellphone, and some cellphones refuse to power on without a working SIM card. It appears the iPhone may be one of those. So much for being an iPod with cellular capabilities, eh?
"- It will be interesting to see whether AT&T will unlock the phone on request, as they do for other GSM phones (for international travel and prepaid SIMs), and if that is the case, how well other carriers' networks work with iPhone (obviously sans things like Visual Voicemail)."
Haven't you already declared as fact that all this will work, Dave? I seem to have had this conversation before.
"- Still no word on battery replacement specifics, but it seems safe to assume that iPhone is the same as iPod in this respect; namely, that it is sealed and that the battery isn't "user accessible", but that there will still be plenty of ways to replace the battery yourself or via third parties if you so choose (battery failure under warranty would be covered by the warranty)."
Why would this be safe to assume, Dave? Are you so embarrassed by an Apple product's shortcomings that you have to continually make up excuses and assumptions? Why can't you leave this just as it is? No user replacable battery.
"I'm going to be tracking this issue here."
Why would you bother doing that? I thought you weren't a fanboy? It's amazing your singular dedication to one product and one company for someone who only cares about the objective facts.
"WiFi via the browser will probably work fine as-is without a contract. Note: it is not certain that this is the case, but it seems likely."
Why does this seem likely? Why are you so motivated to make assumptions about how this device will work? Why can't you just say that we don't know until it ships? The iPhone is locked to AT&T services. That's how it is until we know otherwise.
"- Also remains to be seen how "hackable" the phone is in general. Here's to hoping."
Just come out and say it, Dave. The iPhone will be everyone's dream machine.
Yeah, yeah.... I did the same thing, and had a Kyocera 7135 before it, even. Both times, I was convinced the phone was finally "good enough" at running useful apps that I'd do a lot more with it than than make/take calls. Both times, I was wrong.
But you have to admit, the iPhone looks FAR more capable than any of these other "smartphones". With my Treo 650, for example, my web browsing experience was a total joke. Most sites I tried to pull up simply crashed the browser with some kind of exception error. Other times, they worked, but had the links scattered all over the screen, making it almost impossible to figure out which part of the site they even corresponded with.
I remember, for example, going car shopping and taking my Treo with me, with the idea that I could quickly look up some used-car blue-book prices on Edmunds or Kelly Blue Book's web site. Nope... just futile!
It also appears it has a functional/useful built-in camera. Of course it's not going to stack up well against a good quality digital stand-alone camera, but sample photos circulating on the net sure look far better than the dark, dingy or blurry results I got out of my Moto Razr or Treo cameras!
The Google map integration of the iPhone looks like a very useful feature too. You can get directions to a restaurant or hotel, for example, and then dial the number to the place with a tap on the screen. I never had anything that worked nearly as well on my Treo. (I remember having a couple 411 directory type applets for it to find phone numbers of places, but half the time, they'd just come back with some kind of "service unavailable" message when I tried to use them.)
Sleazy? What a strange word to use here. I think you overestimate the importance of Slashdot karma... and probably of Slashdot in general. Most of us like to browse Slashdot, looking for some interesting news, and partake in the discussions. Karma helps us get our points across, but for most of us, it's not the end of the world if we lose some now and again. In any case, it's pretty judgmental to assume that dave is preparing to launch an assault on some Slashdot sacred cow, and he doesn't have any links in his posts (in a sig or in the header) to a commercial site or blog, only his webpage at his school, so he's not making money off of people reading his posts.
Let's all take a break from our computers now and step outside for some fresh air.
An unadvertised, negotiated loyalty deal isn't really the same as these AT&T plans.
My phone with SprintPCS is about $80/mo, unlimited nights and weekends...I think about 1000 anytime minutes, SMS is extra, but, I don't use that much, nor do I ever come close to the daytime minutes.
I heard the other day on NPR how it was difficult for Apple or any other hardware manufactuer to get into the phone market because of the service cartel. Personally, I think talking about $80/mo as if its nothing is crazy. I pay like $30/mo for my phone and I think I'm getting ripped off (~ 12-15 of that is taxes and fees and other crap).
I simply don't understand how I can use the internet for $20-40/mo, unlimited "minutes" worldwide access, but talking to someone on the phone frequently costs more?
To me, in 2007, phone service should be less than $20/mo, but being that people are willing to spend over $100/household for phones, the phone service people will gladly take their money.
Actually, the iPhone plan is exactly the same as AT&T's regular price plans, to within a few pennies.
iPhone plan = 450 minute $39.99 voice plan plus $19.99 unlimited data smart phone plan with e-mail.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
How hard is it to make a VOIP application that works in Safari?
Without Flash or Java? I'd say pretty damn hard.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
To me, in 2007, phone service should be less than $20/mo, but being that people are willing to spend over $100/household for phones, the phone service people will gladly take their money.
You're not really paying for the ability to talk on the phone or connect to the internet. You're paying for the ability to talk on the phone or connect to the internet more or less anywhere. Phone companies are unscrupulous bastards, yes, but that's not the only reason phone service costs what it does.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
It's a heck of a typo because all the math on the sub-capacities works out.
My guess is that it's not a higher capacity iPhone that's being shown here (by mistake) but rather that this style of syncing/reporting will become available for existing iPods and this screen shot slipped in.
if it has quicktime and core*, I imagine not difficult at all. Remember all that hype about someone opening a quicktime video on a webpage that used coregraphics/quartz composer to show you your own webcam image? Just hook up some form of network output (quicktime broadcaster? I think the functionality is actually in quicktime itself..), and you're all set. I'm pretty sure the same concept can be applied to coreaudio in quicktime to make a simple phone app, but don't quote me on that.
You can avoid the iPod because it is a free market. You can buy a Zen or even a Zune.
...With the new plans announced by Apple and AT&T, that has changed. The minimum plan with unlimited data is $59, or $1416 over two years. That makes the $500 iPhone well over a hundred dollars less than Verizon's limp Motorola Q, which is $2170 with its required service plan.
You can't do the same in the PC market. You will grow grey hairs before Dell or HP or any other PC maker will offer you real options in your OS. Sure, a few token free OS offerings to hobbyists, but no commercial competition, and no hope for that situation to change. It's been the same since the early 90s. That's a monopoly.
Avoiding Windows is like trying to avoid roads or money. Sure you can barter and live in a cave, but there is really no option to avoiding Windows. You can easily avoid any products from Apple and find all sorts of competitive alternatives.
Apple: iPhone Now Costs Less than Ballmer's Lame Motorola Q
After earlier blowing apart iPhone battery panic with an announcement of 8 hours of talk time, Apple dropped yet another bombshell upon "business as usual" in the mobile market.