> ian douglas wrote: > > By my calculations below, a consumer buying an iPhone or a Freerunner, > and using AT&T for a voice/data plan, is going to spend about $2600 over > two years no matter which phone they buy. > > Jorge's original posting in this thread said the following: > > the new iPhone 3G price was announced, and the 8 Gigas version will > > cost only $199 USD and now the FreeRunner is less competitive than > the iPhone in terms of price. > > He was asking about straight out-of-pocket expense, not about subsidies. > The end consumer is only going to see the price tag on the phone itself.
EXACTLY!! a GNU/Linux geek will see the difference, but GTA02 is for mass production, and i am afraid the price will discourage buyers for the same reasons your are telling > The consumer will look at the iPhone and see a price of $199. > Then they'll look at the Freerunner and see a price tag of $399. EXACTLY AGAIN! > The Freerunner would perhaps be cheaper if the consumer buys "pay as you > go" minutes/data instead of a monthly plan. Excepting if you can buy an unlocked iPhone for less than $399 USD, because in most countries you can buy pay as you go minutes for any phone. > The Freerunner would *definitely* be cheaper if they buy the iPhone and > start buying applications through iTunes for their phone. Of course, iTunes aplications are horribly expensive and non-free!! >> If you want to compare the total cost, compare the total cost of buying >> the new iphone UNLOCKED at retail cost (you can't) plus the data package >> and THEN we can talk. > > But the consumer isn't asked to pay the full unlocked price of the > iPhone. Just because AT&T subsidizes the phone by lessening the profit > they make on the $100/month you'll pay them for using their service, Also true _________________________________________________________________ Get your fix of news, sports, entertainment and more on MSN Mobile http://www.msnmobilefix.com/Default.aspx _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community