June Is My Lucky Month

Look what just came in the mail from Nextel:

It’s pretty much your typical here’s a special deal that’s only for special customers like you (er, along with every single other customer we have, whom we also sent this letter to) which will allow you to get huge savings of $70!!OMGFTPBBQ off a new 2-year contract regularly priced at $1680 and PLEASE STAY WITH US AND DON’T JUMP SHIP FOR THE IPHONE COME JUNE 29TH! -type letter.

Fat chance, Nextel.

Apparently it was 2 years ago this month that I signed my 2-year agreement with them, and of course this month the iPhone will be released.  The iPhone ads are quite salivation-inducing, especially in light of the fact that every cell phone I’ve ever owned has been basically garbage, including my current sucky Motorola cell phone: call-making ability is only adequate, interface/usability is without exception awful, and ability to do anything else is nonexistent.

The $500 iPhone price tag seems steep at first, but when you consider the total cost it’s pretty much negligible.  My current phone cost me $200, and with my "$60/month" plan which of course costs me $70+ each month, the total cost for the phone with service is $200 + $70x24 = $1880.  So the iPhone with a similarly-priced plan would be $2180, which is a difference of only 16%, and is actually only $12/month more overall when you consider the cost of the hardware as part of the 2-year contract (which of course it really is: the "free" or cheap phones that we get are of course paid for over 2 years as part of the service plan).

Twelve dollars per month is so worth it that it’s a no-brainer when you consider what you’re getting: the old phone could only make phone calls, but the new phone also has:

-full internet capabilities on a decently-sized screen

-a sweet Google Maps front-end (GMaps being one of my favorite things ever which you know if you read my blog)

-a decent digital camera

-photo-displaying abilities (again, the big screen makes all the difference)

-the ability to use WiFi internet connections

-an iPod

As I’ve said before, its 4-8 GB capacity will be far too small for my ~40 GB music collection, but I’ll upgrade in a couple years when one that large is available, and in the meantime I’ll have all those other awesome features which I didn’t have with my cell phone before.

Also, WWDC is next week and Steve Jobs’ keynote will be at 1 PM eastern time on Monday.  MacRumors and Engadget will be live-blogging the event, during which some interesting secrets about the iPhone and/or other Apple products will likely be revealed.