Musings on my iPhone contract and iPhone vs iTouch ... blah... etc. (Tedium warning.)

[chebby]

A little while ago I wanted to finish my £35 a month iPhone contract when it ends in July.

Before the contract I used to be 'pay-as-you-go' and would spend £20 a month on top-ups. I suppose I got the iPhone because I liked having iTunes on it and I love being able to surf the internet wherever I am totally free-of-charge. (Well, 95 percent of places anyway.)

Now I am getting towards the date I can upgrade to an iPhone 4 (8th June earliest) I am beginning to look forward to that rather than ending the contract instead.

Why?

My Marantz M-CR603 + AirPlay and the cost of a 32GB iTouch.

My present iPhone is not enough (8GB) to have but a selection of my iTunes on it, so I would need 32GB to get it all in there with reasonble room for expansion. (Everything on my iTunes is 256k VBR rips from my CDs or 256k iTunes downloads.)

I could get a cheapo pay-as-you-go phone and a 32GB iTouch, but the iTouch would cost £254 and I would only save £15 a month on my phone charges. That would mean (a) 17 months of £15 'savings' before the iTouch is paid for (b) having to carry two things with me everywhere (phone and iTouch) instead of one iPhone.

Because of my 'existing customer' status, my monthly charge (after iPhone 4 32GB upgrade) would remain the same at £35 and the one off cost of the iPhone (as things stand right now) would be about £47 due to the 'refund' value of my current iPhone being deducted from it. (I never even knew they did that until recently.)

So, over the course of the next contract, I will be about £82 out of pocket (spread over 18 months) compared to having an iTouch instead. However, the convenience and the ability to use all of my iTunes (via Airplay) without the computer, without USB leads, without having to have a seperate PAYG phone. In fact any half-decent PAYG phone is probably going to cost me more than £82 so the O2 iPhone 4 upgrade deal may even be a tiny bit cheaper.

I looked into PAYG iPhone 4s but they cost almost £700 and surfing the internet would probably cost as much again!

Sorry for the detail, but writing all this out like this is a way of sorting it out and an opportunity for you to tell me if my logic is wrong or if i've missed something.

I guess the way I am using iTunes/iPhone now via AirPlay on the Marantz has changed my thinking towards the 'value' of renewing my contract with an upgraded iPhone given the cost of the alternative.

Paradoxically the M-CR603 has afforded me the chance to flush out most of the music from iTunes (I hardly ever played it) and dedicate it entirely to storage and playback of documentary/drama/comedy/spoken word/audio-books. I actually find myself playing music mostly from FM and internet radio and from my CDs again now the old Naim system is in boxes under the stairs. (Good job I kept all my CDs.)

Now I am just hoping Apple can refrain from announcing iPhone 5 until after June 8th because that will mess up my plan.

Sorry again if reading this has become 5 minutes of your life you'll never get back but I am sure I am not alone in questioning the value of their soon to expire phone contracts or indeed iThings vs other iThings.

 

[professorhat]

My renewal is coming up in August - was wondering whether to look at an Android device (just for a change of scene), but I'm very happy with the iPhone and a lot of my stuff is Apple based so it doesn't really make sense.

Reading this confirms to me that I'll most likely be doing the same as you when it comes up!

 

[Andrew Everard]

Now I am just hoping Apple can refrain from announcing iPhone 5 until after June 8th because that will mess up my plan.

Clickety

 

[professorhat]

Doh!

 

[chebby]

Doh!

Not necessarily.

After O2 got the iPhone 4 they retained the iPhone 3GS (still in the shop last week).

So what I lose out on the refund value of my old phone will probably be matched, in large part, by the reduction in cost of the iPhone 4 post iPhone 5 announcement. (The staff explained what is likely to happen based on the 3 to 4 transition.)

Two days post announcement is not the same thing as two days after O2 actually getting iPhone 5s in stock. So 32GB iPhone 4s will still be 'in the system'.

I don't want the iPhone 5 anyway.

 

[rs6mra]

buying the iphone 4 outright is £612 inclusive of VAT and delivery, plus you are not tied into a contract and you might just want that upgrade to iPhone 5!

 

[chebby]

buying the iphone 4 outright is £612 inclusive of VAT and delivery, plus you are not tied into a contract and you might just want that upgrade to iPhone 5!

So only about 12 times more than my O2 'upgrade' would cost and two and a half times more expensive than an iTouch 32GB. Plus you still have to have some kind of PAYG deal which - for many if not me - might cost a lot more than £35 a month. (I am a light user and have only ever exceeded my £35 monthly payment by £2 at the most in the last year or so.)

 

[Paul.]

When iPhone 5 comes out, the 4 should drop by £100 (as you probably know) but the release date is usually about a month from the announcement date. They will offer a £100 refund to iPhone 4 buyers 30 days before iPhone 5 release (not typically the announcement date). Problem is, no one knows how the Japanese situation will affect Apple (apparently they are paying 4x over the odds on ipad screens right now to meet demand).

I think announcement at WWDC (as andrew pointed out) is a given, but the release date is up in the air, it may not be 30 days . If you hope to get that £100 refund the safest bet is to sit on your hands until announcement day.

 

[rs6mra]

I mentioned the price as you had previously quoted £700. I changed over for the first time last year from pay monthly to PAYG and my monthly bill reduced from £35 to £20 giving me the same package - unlimited texts, 900 minutes and 500Mb with a months cancellation notice. 11 months later Vodafone's reception plummets and I am on my way back to my original provider whose reception is the best in the village and better than it was ever before.

 

[Trefor Patten]

Pur-lease it is iPOD Touch, not iTouch.

 

[chebby]

Pur-lease it is iPOD Touch, not iTouch.

iNdeed, you are right.

iPod touch it is.

 

[the record spot]

Alternatively, go sim-free. I bought a sim-free Nokia E55 last year, £200. Can use with any network, but am currently with 3. The last contract ended last month. Tesco Mobile were offering a Nokia N8 for £20 a month. Phoned 3 and mentioned this and they came back with a sim-only deal of £8 a month. This is their "1 Plan" and having been with 3 for three years (coincidentally), I got a cracking deal that suits me. More minutes than I'll ever use, but unlimited internet use (and that's without a fair use cap). Also about 10,000 minutes to other 3 users, 2,000 voice minutes and 5,000 texts. That's a 12-month deal, but I won't get better anywhere else by a long way. Delighted. Might be worth you having a chat with your provider (O2?) and seeing what they can do...

The cost of sim-free is of course the phone, but I wanted great battery life and good functionality. The E55 (now discontinued) gave me that for a smartphone. I can get about two and a half days out of it, if I hammer it, just under two. Suits me. The N8 went back to Amazon as it barely makes a day. I use Spotify on the mobile constantly and the E55 soaks it up. For all that, you're still shelling out a fair bit. In that case, spread the cost, buy a good credit card (M&S currently have 15 months 0% interest on theirs which just arrived the other week) and enjoy the benefits. I bought mine from my company account and sim-free/only is one (or two!) options to bear in mind.

 

[Helmut80]

these mobile recycling sites often pay good money for old iPhones. I sold my 2 year old 3G when the 4 dropped for £189, exactly what I'd paid for it 24 months earlier, even thugh it had some light scratches on the back.

 

[John Duncan]

buying the iphone 4 outright is £612 inclusive of VAT and delivery, plus you are not tied into a contract and you might just want that upgrade to iPhone 5!

Mine was £510. I pay £10 a month sim-only to 3 for all the calls/text/data I need...

 

[the record spot]

What's the battery life like on the 4 John? I'd get one, but have a deep loathing of anything that needs to be recharged every day. The E55's got a stonking battery but it's getting a bit battered now. Might just try to find a NOS one of them instead.

 

[chebby]

Less than 6 weeks to go. (Until I can renew contract with an iPhone 4).

Checked again yesterday. Figures are still the same. As things stand I will still get an iPhone 4 32GB for £47 (after trade-in of old iPhone) and monthly payments will still be £35. (More calls and text than I need and free surfing of course.)

(35 x 18) + 47 = £677

So - over the course of the contract - I will end up paying a bit more than the £612 (price on Apple UK online store for iPhone 4 32GB) but it is mine to keep at the end and will probably still have some trade-in value.

John's £510 iPhone 4 (presumably the 16GB) + his £10 per month deal would cost £690 over 18 months but would not have enough capacity for me to sync everything I need with enough spare to add more in future.

Of course Apple could still launch the iPhone 5 in the next 6 weeks so it could all change.

 

[chebby]

I got it today and it sounds a lot better than the old one (3GS 8GB) via AirPlay.

I got £137 for the old 3GS 8GB against the cost of the new one with O2's recycle scheme. So I opted for the 32GB iPhone 4 which cost me £106 after the trade-in.

Now I can sync my entire iTunes with bags of room left over. (All of my iTunes stuff is 256K AAC VBR.)

I know this one sounds better/clearer because I can now hear faint background hiss again from my old BBC FM recordings. (Evident from AirPlay on the laptop + iTunes but lacking via AirPlay on the old 3GS.)

Thanks Apple for not launching iPhone 5 before today.

 

[John Duncan]

John's £510 iPhone 4 (presumably the 16GB) + his £10 per month deal would cost £690 over 18 months but would not have enough capacity for me to sync everything I need with enough spare to add more in future.

It was the 16gig, yes, since I tend to sync an offline Spotify playlist or two and be done with it, and if I want to listen to something else I listen over 3G.

I'll be interested to see how iCloud works - it may download stuff to the phone on the fly when you play it? I'm presuming there has to be some sort of contingency for people who have 70gig music libraries...