Cost of Ownership May Scare Potential Smartphone Owners
Thursday, November 5, 2009 by Mike Bertolino We at HackCollege like to think our readers are a few standard deviations above the mean when it comes to tech savviness. I came across this interesting infographic from BillShrink that was dugg over 1000 times and was featured on Lifehacker. It's a comparison of the four major wireless carriers and the best phones they have to offer. Here it is for your viewing pleasure and consumerdom.
Droid vs iPhone 3GS vs Palm Pre vs MyTouch 3G: Total Cost of Ownership (BillShrink Blog)
This is one thing to think about if you are going to get a smartphone. Data plans cost almost as much as the voice plan in some cases. So, before buying think about how much you're actually going to use the mobile internet you'll pay so much for.
Also, there's speculation that Verizon might charge for Exchange access. West Chester U runs on Exchange and that would be a deal-breaker for me. It could be 15 to 20 dollars a month on top of a data plan that's also running 30 dollars or more. As the Wired article says, "Verizon loves to nickel and dime its customers."
Do you have a smartphone? Is it worth having to pay extra for the data plan? Comment below to share!
Reader Comments (3)
If you're on a college campus or other area with reliable Internet service, it might be viable to skip the data plan and just use the Wifi on your phone. That's what I do with my Blackberry since I can't justify paying T-mobile 30 bucks a month for a service that I won't even use heavily.
Data plans are too expensive. Since 95% of my life is spent at locations with wifi, I just use my iPod touch and a very cheap phone.
I use an old Palm Centro designed for Sprint. It's flashed to run on the Cricket network. I pay ~$45 for unlimited calls, voice mail and other stuff I really don't really care to use. The phone is my own personal secretary. It will sync with a PC, you don't need a data plan. The google calendar, and other PC based calendars are good, but the downside is mobility. For me its nice to have contacts and my calendar in my pocket so at a moments notice I know what my schedule is a month from now (I can't remember it more than a day out). With computers / wifi most everywhere you go I find it pointless and costly to browse the web on such a tiny screen. Plus the keyboards are so tiny if they even have one. I say keep it simple but useful. Put the money you would be spending on a data plan towards a plan with more minutes if your cutting it close, or even an unlimited voice plan. Smartphone minus the dataplan = smart!