12 December 2007 6 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

For the past few months I’ve been wanting an iPhone. I didn’t think much of it when it came out and I actually thought it was silly to wait out in the cold to get one. I even wrote about how crazy it was to pay up to $1000 for one on eBay when they were initially sold out. Don’t get me wrong, I would never come close to paying that much for one. I casually tested one out about a month ago at the Apple store I am convincingly hooked on it. If you haven’t experienced one, you’ll be blown away when you get your hands on it. The visually stunning interface seals the deal. It didn’t help that my girlfriend’s brother bought one a few weeks ago. It also doesn’t help that I’m still locked in with T-mobile so I need an unlocked version which costs a lot more. My initial reaction was that this gadget is way overpriced and its irresponsible to buy one, or so I thought. The more I think about it now, and I do tend to over-analyze any purchase over $50, the more I’m leaning towards getting one. However, I am still having second and third thoughts. After all, this is a very expensive cell phone. Here are my findings.

Consolidation

The main idea behind an iPhone is that it combines several devices into one. Obviously, its got an 8gb MP3 player built right in. This comes in real handy for me because I do need a music player in my car. Actually, I have no choice because my CD changer broke and I’m not shelling out hundreds of dollars to buy a brand new one from BMW when my car is eight years old. I’ve been going radio-only for the past few months and its starting to drive me nuts. 8gb is a lot of storage, and an 8gb micro SD card would cost over $120 for my current phone, so thats another plus of having memory built in. Additionally, this thing has all the features of a PDA and then some. It’s got a full HTML browser, email, google maps among tons of other third party applications. The internet functions come in handy for me as I run several internet based businesses and email response time is a factor. With the advanced browser, its like having a mini laptop wherever I go. Because I am on T-mobile, I can access all the data features for only $5 a month. I’m also fairly certain I can buy a cheap bluetooth GPS receiver on eBay and have the benefits of a navigation device right on my phone. If you consider the prices of the decent PDA phone, 8gb Mp3 player, and the cost of a GPS device, the iPhone’s cost doesn’t sound as bad as it seems.

Depreciation

It’s nice to have all the features you can want on one handy device, and its not that expensive considering that, but there is still no question that the iPhone will cost less in the future. Apple dropped the price significantly already, but I suspect further price drops once the second generation iPhone is released. If I spent $500+ on one now, I’ll likely be able to sell it for around $200 when get another phone down the line.

Alternatives

There are other less expensive phones on the market that has similar features. Chances are I can get a decent PDA phone and buy a memory card and experience a lot of the same features as the iPhone. What sets the iPhone apart is the 3.5″ LCD the touch screen, it’s revolutionary browser and WIFI capabilities. Videos won’t be as clear on a smaller screen and browsing the web would hurt your eyes after a while. So the question then becomes, how much is it worth to have a bigger high resolution screen. This is the only feature I found that is nonexistent on almost all phones on the market. The largest screens I’ve seen is 2.8-3 inches.

Conclusion

After carefully examining all the pros and cons of the Apple iPhone, I have come to a startling conclusion. I have concluded that I am still very undecided. What’s really stopping me is the high price tag. All phones will experience depreciation so there is no way around that. I can get a decent blackberry and an 8gb memory card and still be ahead by $100-$200, but I’ll have to browse and watch videos on a smaller screen. If anyone has any suggestions do let me know. Until I make a decision I’m finding myself looking at phones every night and being very inefficient.