iPhone 4 and total cost ownership

[old.user4556]

Gents,

My missus likes shiny Apple tat, so naturally the question of iPhone 4 as an upgrade has popped up, so I had a look online at pricing. I'm a bit confused, it seems that buying the iPhone 4 outright and getting a sim only deal is the most cost effective method, or am I missing something?

For example:

Orange.

iPhone 4 16 GB
18 month contract
600 minutes
500 texts
500 Mb data allowance
Phone cost - £229
Monthly cost - £35
TCO 18 months - £859

SIM only.

iPhone 4 16 GB unlocked
Giff Gaff £15 goody bag
300 minutes
unlimited texts
unlimited data
Phone cost - £499
Monthly cost - £15
TCO 18 months - £769

Granted, less minutes, but texting and data is much more important than phoning, she could even go to the £10 goody bag with Giff Gaff which would take the TCO for 18 months down to £679, nearly £200 cheaper than Orange.

So I looked at O2 next:

iPhone 4 16 GB
18 month contract
300 minutes
unlimited text
500 MB data allowance
Phone cost - £199
Monthly cost - £35
TCO 18 months - £829

Still not as cheap as buying the phone outright and putting a Giff Gaff SIM in it. The other beauty is that if she gets bored with it and wants to go back to an HTC phone, she could probably sell it 12 months down the line and make a fair chunk of the money back on the handset.

Thoughts / advice? I've only looked at high level numbers so there may be something in the small print that the tech savvy may know.

 

[inactionman]

I thought that jesus phone customers got special deals on data? I know that apple gets a cut of all the iphone tarrifs, which may explain the price difference.

 

[Ch3tan]

Apple set the pricing G, I'm surprised the handset is so cheap to buy offline. Weren't the 3gs's sold for around £800 new?

 

[old.user4556]

As am I Chet, that's what's not stacking up - why would it be cheaper to buy it outright and then stick a SIM in it...

I suppose perhaps some people don't have £499 kicking around to splurge on a new phone.

iPhone 4 & iPhone 3GS - Apple Store (UK)

 

[Edmond]

What about insuring it, with a contract you can, can you without one?

My work partner has just got one on our Vodafone business contract, cost an extra £120 to upgrade and had to be a 24mth deal. £10 extra a month from our current deal for unlimited data

We were told they are very easy to crack the screen, so we have insured it to. We fit windows and bash about up and down ladders all day, so i'm not convinced how resilient (sp) its going to be. My renewel doesn't come up till march so i will let him test it out first

It seems its utility first and a phone second, which is overkill for me, i want a phone to make/recieve phone calls on, the email pick up is a bonus, but thats it really

And its too big for my work trousers, i would wreck it in no time at all, hence i made him get the insurance, we will see how it fairs

 

[old.user4556]

Of course you can insure it without .

 

[ford prefect]

I do ours through a busines deal (I'm partly self employed - it was easy enough to set up), each handest costs £629.82 for 18 months and that is with 1800 mobile minute, 2000 landline minutes and 1000 txts all of which run over into the next month and unlimited data plus full insurance. Those minutes are international too - so there is never a chargable call unless you ring an 0845 no. ect. That is for the 32gb version. I think the 16gb version was a bit cheaper - went for the 32 gb because it replaces my ipod nicely. Oh and for an extra fiver per month they took care of the Ipad's data too.

It is done through one of the third part agents, so O2 charge full price and the agent credits x amount every month back into the O2 account.

 

[Moriath]

buying from apple at 499 and getting whatever sim you want is the better deal imo ... and you can change between carriers if you find cheaper deals and stuff too ..

 

[Aada]

If you can afford to buy it from the Apple store do it that is the method i used to get my 3GS the upfront cost is eye watering but in the long term it saves you money.

It's also how we got my GF her iPhone 4.

 

[WPKenny]

How-to: figure out the best value iPhone 4 contracts in the UK (updated) -- Engadget

All you should need to know.

 

[old.user4556]

Cheers Kenny, repped.

 

[MrHorus]

I bought mine PAYG from Orange and unlocked it for T-Mobile.

I don't want to be tied down to a contract ever again.

 

[Aada]

I bought mine PAYG from Orange and unlocked it for T-Mobile.

I don't want to be tied down to a contract ever again.

Touche no 24month contracts for me ever again either.