So AT&T made it official: effective in two weeks, you will no longer be able to buy anything but a Mobile Share plan for your phone. Which basically puts them in line with the rest of cellular America: you are obligated to buy unlimited voice and text, and the price differentiator is only on data. For AT&T, a single user with 2 GB data a month (in other words, typical iPhone setup) will cost you $95 a month…in other words, $40 more than AIO will charge you for prepaid service with no contract on the same damned network.
Seriously, I have signed my last contract. It’s going to be all T-Mobile or AIO from now on, as soon as I’m left to my own devices (SEE WHAT I DID THERE). But that brings up another interesting conundrum. Observe:
New Nexus 7 (2013) with cellular data, 32 GB – $349
New iPad Mini with cellular data, 32 GB – $559
New iPad retina with cellular data, 32 GB – $729
New iPhone 5C, white, 32 GB, unlocked – $649
New Moto X developer edition, 32 GB, unlocked – $649
New iPhone 5S, gold, 32 GB, unlocked – $749
There you go. Across the board, a new smartphone is more expensive than a tablet of similar make and capacity. Yet because of years of contract subsidies, we’re conditioned to think that a tablet costs more than a phone. Nevertheless, if you buy that white 5C unlocked and put it on AIO, your savings over two years? Five hundred dollars. That’s after paying full price up front for the phone. In fact, at $40 a month, you’ve made up the upfront out-of-pocket cost in a year. On top of that, you’re free to change between AIO and T-Mobile every other month if you like. Hell, you could be on AIO, then switch to T-Mobile for a month when going abroad so as to have the same number and free international data roaming, then switch back to AT&T’s network on AIO when you return. That’s an entirely realistic and feasible scenario.
But the thing is, you have to change your thinking. It didn’t occur to me that I should be looking to replace my iPad next March. I’ve had it a year and a half, it’s running just fine – there’s no contract coming up. More importantly, there’s no monthly nut to make that won’t get any lower just because the contract’s run out. With a contract, keeping your existing phone doesn’t gain you anything; you’re paying the subsidy rate every month whether you’re paying the phone off or not. So the impulse is to jump on the upgrade as soon as the new phone comes out, because you may as well have the benefit of the subsidy.
By contrast – the wife will have the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 4S she still has will be left over. If I had to give up my work phone, for whatever reason, that 4S will run iOS 7 pretty good. Replacing the battery yourself is feasible for not much money. And boom, there’s an entirely viable phone, running for $55 a month on AIO. You can replace the phone whenever you need to replace the phone, not on a 2-year cycle. But for this to work long-term, people have to start thinking in terms of the full value of the phone, and wrapping your head around the prospect that a phone costs $650 – more than a tablet – is going to be a heavy lift for a lot of folks.