6 Comments

When Free Isn’t Exactly Free: How a Free Phone Actually Costs $1,980

July 16, 2007 by in Mobile with 6 Comments

So you think you can’t justify the $499 and $599 price tag for the iPhone and thought you would save money getting a free PDA phone, in this case a Treo 680. According to PalmAddicts a free phone is actually more expensive then the iPhone.

Phone Model Phone Cost Monthly Cost
450 minutes and unlimited data		 SDHC card 24 Month TCO
Treo 680
with 4GB SDHC card		 $0 $80 x 24 = $1,920 $60 $1,980
4GB iPhone $500 $60 X 24 = $1,440 $0 $1,940
Treo 680
with 8GB SDHC card		 $0 $80 x 24 = $1,920 $80 $2,000
8GB iPhone $600 $60 X 24 = $1,440 $0 $2,040

So the difference between a free Treo 680 and a $500/$600 iPhone over the course of 24 months is a grand total of $40… or $1.67/month or less than $0.40/week. [...] Someone might argue that the iPhone’s battery may need to be replaced by then, which is true, but then again I’ve gone through several different Treos over the past 4 years because their either broke or wore out. So for the purposes of this discussion let’s not factor in hardware wearing out. By the time the iPhone battery needs to be replaced, there may be other alternatives, as there are today for iPod batteries which wear out.

All this study showed me is the cellular service is ridiculously expensive.

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  • Jerry

    Ha!!!! That’s nothing.

    Here in Mexico just for 1500 min. I pay a total of $250 us dollars a month x 24 months that’s a grand total of: $6000 dollars for two years. Talk about expensive.

  • Carlos

    UpStage phone = $75
    Two 2GB MicroSD card = $50 (Available soon an 8GB MicroSD)
    Sprint Sero Plan = $30 (500 min, free nights and weekends, unlimited data,etc)

    Total after 24 months $845

  • http://www.uneasysilence.com Dan

    But then again you would have to deal with the UpStage

  • http://www.zatznotfunny.com Dave Zatz

    Oh, no… not the UpStage! Does anyone really keep a phone two years?

  • http://www.vitamincm.com VitaminCM

    Do you really want to be rockin the Hammer Pants of cell phones in two years?
    It’s kind of like how I gave me 2nd generation ipod to my kid.

  • ZionVier

    [quote]Oh, no… not the UpStage! Does anyone really keep a phone two years?[/quote]

    I’ve had my Treo 700 for almost 2 years now and have no reason to get an iphone or any other device. There’s nothing that the iphone can do better than the 700 that would warrant me to want to “upgrade”; mp3s on my cell phone (I have multiple 1Gb SD cards), 2.4mbps internet with internet explorer, remote desktop into my home computer, voice activation, QWERTY keyboard, touch screen, PDA stuff, writing my own software in .Net for my phone, internet radio using Windows Media player, google maps, MS Office, AIM, and 1.3 Megapixel camera. Just let me know when they make a 6+Megapixel phone with optical zoom and a flash or a micro projector screen so I can project it onto a wall with 1024×768 or better resolution and still do everything the treo can and I might upgrade… might. (the micro projector would definitely get me to upgrade)

    I just personally don’t see what the huge fuss is about the iphone considering, in my eyes they are 2 years behind and need to step it up for it to deserve this kind of attention. Perhaps someone who’s owned the Treo and now has an iphone can comment and give an opinion.

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