- Apple tablet rumors persist.
- Western Digital does a 2.5-inch terabyte laptop disk! Wow!
- Foxconn buys off family in China for $44,000.
- Win 7 is a great gaming platform they say.
- Get your IE patch now!
- Dell’s bank accounts frozen in Taiwan.
- Sprint to go with Android?
- Fujitsu off to the races with USB 3.0.
- Yahoo said to have best image search. I do not see it.
- Pre for $99?
- Bill Gates quits Facebook.
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
Bloggers should be legally obligated to state the ACTUAL COST of mobile phones.
A mobile phone for $99 in Best Buy? How bout you mention also the friggin $2000 contract that people have to SIGN with their BLOOD before being able to get it.
$99 Palm Pre, $299 iphone 3GS, ARE YOU GUYS KIDDING ME!?
Use brains please. Mobile phones are sold with $2000 contracts.
In other more civilized contries, you can buy decent smartphones at $100 with NO CONTRACT WHATSOEVER. Totally unlocked phones, no giving out exclusivity to one company on all your mobile multimedia life for the next 730 days and a half!
And how about sites instead focus on the fact that we learn from that incident, that Apple is actually outsourcing R&D on the iphone to a Taiwanese company?
How much of that R&D is done by people at Foxconn? Not only on the iphone, but how about on the macintosh computers?
Why is this relevant? Well perhaps some people would stop glorifying everything Apple does and instead look at it as just them being “smart” at monetizing trends in consumer electronics. And that Apple is in no way a revolutionary and innovative company, but that Apple is just a bunch of focus group strategists that pinpoints consumers demand, make it their own by putting an Apple logo on it and then make it sound like Apple invented the technology.
Apple invented none of: GUI in early personal computers, laptops, desktops, mp3 players, smartphones or tablets.
Would you like a slave shackle with your Pre?
I prefer to Live Free or Die, without a contract, so I use a Chinese clone phone and I buy $100 T-Mobile prepaid cards that give me 1000 minutes.
My phone:
http://miphone.tk
Would you like a slave shackle with your Pre? They might as well say “now with improved Slavery(TM)”!
I prefer cell phone that have the “freedom” feature installed, i.e. they come unlocked & without a contract. So I use a Chinese clone phone and I buy $100 T-Mobile prepaid cards that give me 1000 minutes.
My phone:
http://miphone.tk
Wow Charbax, not an apple fanboy huh? I think the “blogger” didn’t mention it because one would assume that everyone is aware of hidden cell costs. I’m pretty sure you can take any carrier and add up all the costs, fees, surcharges and initial phone price and over your contract you end up paying about the same. An that does include carriers like metroPCS where they just get you on the phone price up front. The one exception may be the throwaways John uses, depending on your usage habbits of course.
And furthermore, now I’m mad! How did we end up tethered to these phones anyway! I can’t even leave the house without worying if I have my phone with me. I miss the good ol’ days when if I wasn’t home I had the answering machine or anyone wanting to talk to me would just call back later and that was that.
SB, how about, hum… No!
Most of the world uses pre-paid cell phone plans. You can get a so-called throwaway cell phone that John uses starting at $12 unsubsidized, Feature-phones (with touchscreens and basic apps) start at $40, smartphones can be bought UNLOCKED starting at $100 (3″ touchscreens, apps and web browser just like on an iphone).
The worldwide average mobile phone network costs per month for the 3 Billion people using cell phones regularly on this planet use is at less than $8 per month.
There are absolutely no reason cell phone subscription plans in the USA should cost over $50 per month in average with nearly 90% of Americans on 24-month mobile phone contracts.
In Europe, pre-paid plans represent more than 50% of the cell phone market, you are being screwed in the USA.
The US cell phone industry is a huge scam and needs to be pointed out by clever bloggers like John C: “Total U.S. wireless service company revenues were about $148.1 billion 2008, according to CTIA”. That’s 10 times more than NASA’s yearly budget.
Ok, well I agree, US cell users are getting screwed but don’t be coming down on Johnny boy in post #1
Don’t shoot the messenger.
I think you exaggerate in the opposite extreme. The obligation to your contract is not usually $2000, but $200 if you back out early. That is all you are obligated to.
Secondly, the costs to provide service, say in the UK is cheaper than providing service in the state of Texas. It’s a more dense service area than Texas alone. Truth is, we want the toys and we have the money, so we pay it.
Sorry.