On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 11:55 AM, geremy condra <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 11:34 AM, Christopher Barker > <[email protected]> wrote: >> Joshua D. Drake wrote: >>> >>> I do not recommend buying off-contract. It is usually a wash if you end >>> up breaking the contract in terms of penalties versus buying >>> off-contract and if you end up not breaking the contract you get a great >>> deal. >> >> yup -- look at the specific numbers, but last I checked, EVERY carrier had >> the same set-up -- sign a contract and we subsidize the hardware a lot, or >> buy the hardware for an inflated price, and we'll charge EXACTLY the same >> monthly rate -- no discount at all for providing your own hardware. > > 1) That's not the case. T-Mobile and Sprint both have (very slightly) > discounted plans, although you have to dig for them. Having said that, > the total savings last time I checked was only about $10 a month. > > 2) Even on carriers where it is the case (I'm looking at you, VZW and > AT&T) usually the ETF is just a smidge over the difference anyway. Why > bother getting a Droid X at $200 with a $350 ETF when you could buy a > Droid X for $450 and get the same contract price? If you care enough > about a phone to get a top-tier device, odds are good you aren't going > to want that device in 2 years. > >> I really resent that scheme, and am hoping that some day they will simply >> offer you the option of buying or renting the hardware, (with a reasonable >> discount in exchange for a commitment to a contract, if you want). > > I've heard of contract pools, where everybody buys in at a membership > tier and after some (short) amount of time the phone rotates down the > ladder. I've never heard how well it works out though.... > >> But if you're going to buy the hardware outright, there are other options, >> like the Nokia n900, for instance: it's not Android, and may not be >> "established enough", but it is real genuine, familiar, full featured Linux, >> including Python scripting. (the n900 is a bit old now, if you're thinking >> about it, you might want to wait for the upcoming n9) > > Nice hardware on those things, there's one in the lab.
*graphics lab Geremy Condra
