

Nexus One Total Cost of Ownership (chart) - tvon
http://www.billshrink.com/blog/nexus-one-vs-iphone-droid-palm-pre-total-cost-of-ownership/

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dschobel
why couldn't you buy the unlocked phone and get the $60/mo t-mobile unlimited
data plan for a TCO over 24mo of 24*60+579 == $2019?

[http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/cell-phone-plans-
detail.a...](http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/cell-phone-plans-
detail.aspx?tp=tb1&rateplan=Even-More-Plus-500-Talk-Text-Web)

~~~
vlad
More like $70 a month with tax, which the chart should have guesstimated.
Also, the Nexus One is $529, not $579.

Also, T-Mobile offers 1000 minutes for a year for $100, with minutes that
don't expire as long as you keep refilling in time. Since the phone has WiFi,
and there are likely ways around text messaging, the prepaid option is like
getting 333 minutes a month for $33.33 a month, 500 minutes a month for $50,
or if you rarely use the phone, as affordable as 83 minutes a month for $8.33
a month.

You can get a good plan for $529 + $200 = $729 for 24 months, which represents
out of pocket costs of $30 a month to have an internet-connected 1Ghz "mini-
netbook" with you, that can also make and receive calls. Who needs those
clunky, heavy $300-800 netbooks now?

I imagine Google Phones will become the new "netbooks", sold for $300-500 at
Costco stores alongside actual netbooks, next Christmas.

~~~
kylec
Will T-Mobile let you do prepaid + $30/month for unlimited data? If so, that's
an extremely compelling reason to switch.

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joezydeco
If you can use the Sidekick data option ($1 per day of activation), then it
might be doable. iPhone users can't use this option at the moment, I'm
guessing Android phones are out as well.

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sown
No matter how they carve it up, I feel like a fool. It still comes to ~$1000 a
year for a smart phone, this one or another.

It makes me think I should wait a couple of years for data plans to come down
in price as voice and SMS plans have done so in the last few years then maybe
I will come out far ahead. That way maybe I could save some serious money.

But it is a lovely device. :)

~~~
jacoblyles
Actually, you're looking at a marginal $500-$700 a year if you already find a
cell phone to be indispensable.

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potatolicious
And not a single word devoted to the user experience - boggles the mind how
geeks continue to ignore the most obvious, the most _important_ part of any
consumer device, even after seeing the incredible rise of the iPhone.

~~~
huangm
Where is this negativity coming from?

No claim is made that the factors they lay out are the only important ones.
I'm sure they assume many of the user experience differences are well-
understood, and they are just laying out the costs.

~~~
potatolicious
What's the top 3/4 of the chart doing there if this is the case? The majority
of the chart is pure spec-sheet comparison, and of little relevance if the
purpose is a cost comparison.

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wglb
It seems to be a feature comparison, which I think non-geeks would look for as
well.

~~~
potatolicious
That's kind of my point - it's spec-sheet shopping... which consumers have
proven to not really give a hoot about. The iPhone didn't take its swathe of
market share because it had better specs (God knows it didn't), it won by user
experience, something no spec sheet will ever reveal.

IMHO this sort of comparison is pointless - it appears on the surface to be
relevant, but in our experience we have seen that consumers will base buying
decisions on far more subjective parameters. It's really out of touch with
what the general buying public looks for when buying such a device.

Take the battery life data for example: hand a phone shopper two smartphones
and let them play with it. How much weight do you think he/she would place on
a 250h vs. 300h standby time? Compared to how slick/snappy the UI is? Compared
to how intuitively they can get around?

The focus on spec-sheet comparisons IMHO is missing the forest for the trees.

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whatusername
You want a real end-user comparison?

How do the facebook apps on each phone compare?

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houseabsolute
iPhone's is miles ahead, darling.

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wglb
Whoa. A little familiar there.

I only have android--curious what additional features iPhone has for facebook?

~~~
houseabsolute
There's another thread on this same topic about how a mere feature list
doesn't capture the experience of using an app. It's faster and prettier, for
one thing, it has a friends list that is browsable like the iPhone contacts
app -- the Android friends list is just a flat list where you cannot jump from
place to place easily, so if you want to scroll to z it's going to take a
while. You can't handle requests or send Facebook messages with the Android
app as far as I can tell, nor even read your inbox. But a mere list of
features doesn't capture the entire difference.

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Tichy
In Germany I can get a mobile flat for 15€/month (or even 10€ if I were
willing to go to O2, I think). That would be slowed down after 1GB of traffic,
but I think for the time being I would be fine with it. So the TCO numbers are
really nonsense - why mix up the price of the phone with the individual whims
of network operators? Besides, the network costs should be identical for all
smartphones.

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cracki
what would keep you from going to O2? network performance? i'm curious and
have no idea how to compare the providers' networks.

~~~
Tichy
Just my principles. I used to be their customer, but then they refused to
exchange a faulty phone they gave me. If it weren't for that, I'd probably
still choose them.

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jonmc12
One Mistake - the plan only has 500 minutes and costs $79.

Also, initial pricing not quite as straightforward as presented:

[http://www.google.com/support/android/bin/answer.py?hl=en...](http://www.google.com/support/android/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=171784)

ie, $179 only if you are a new customer switching to t-mobile.

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lutorm
It would have been nice if they also included a _lowest_ price option,
something like prepaid voice and data. Or maybe prepaid voice and unlimited
data.

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DrewHintz
Does the iPhone now include turn by turn navigation?

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lutorm
Could you get the $40/month unlimited data only plan and then use Skype for
calls?

