iPhone 1.0, R.I.P.: 2007-2008
By Paul Miller 
posted June 9th 2008 5:56PM
posted June 9th 2008 5:56PM
posted June 9th 2008 5:56PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
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Assuming you already have regular cell phone service (this is america we better all have cell phones), the total added cost of new iPhone:
$199 + $30 (monthly cost of additional required AT&T data plan) =
$919
So compare that $919 with the cost and features of HTC Diamond, Sony Xperia X1, or even the Blackberry Bold .. it's not that great of a deal IMHO.
Uhm, there's a data plan attached to those phones as well you Dumb Ass....
@costitis
Did I say there wasn't?
Anyway, all I was pointing out is that the low price is not ridiculously low when you take that into account. Other data plans for competing phones are cheaper .. and a $10 reduction in monthly cost is $240 over 2 years.
Windows mobile professional phones such as the X1 and the HTC Diamond require AT&T's $40/month PDA/smartphone plan, not the $20 "data plan". $30 for the iphone (i'm guessing AT&T decided an iPhone was somewhere between a normal cell phone and a smartphone) is actually less than the data plan you would get w/ HTC's touch, diamond, tilt, etc...
Of course you can just add the $20 plan if you want, but that applies to both the iPhone and it's competitors.
@Jer
true that
Props to Apple to selling 6 million units of 3G-less iPhones and clearing their entire inventory. Nothing is left on the books and Apple can start off fresh to surpassing 10 million by the end of the year (more likely 15+ million).
Does anyone else think that they inflated the prices on v1 to pay for the research and production of v2? I do.
Check out all the Iphone 3G listings on ebay it's funny.
All of them saying "preorder" hahaha
Also 1 guy has pictures of the "white" and it shows the non-flushed headphone jack and sim card holder area.. it's the colorware case! hahah loser.
There are ppl bidding on the "iphone 3g" listings too. hahhah I hope they get ripped off.
I'm laughing @ all the suckers that spent all that dough for that POS last year.
Now better, faster, and cheaper.
ROFL
The story of Apple owners:
1. Person buys Apple product
2. Person's friend buys *new* Apple product 3 months later
3. Person's friend laughs at person's PoS version of the product
Applicable to:
iPhone
iPod Touch (32GB Model)
iPod Shuffle (Colours, 2GB Models)
And many more!
I know! R-O-F-L haha!
I STILL laugh at the idiots that bought the Pentium II, didn't they know there would be a Pentium III? Haha, all that money, and something fast was released later...
hahahahahaha!!!!!!
Now if the auto industry was modeled after the computer industry, things would be different... "Man, this car I bought last year, only 30MPG, this year's model get 200MPG on Hydrogen!"
In other news, anybody who ever bought anything... EVER.... is a moron. Because it eventually got replaced with something that was better, faster and cheaper.
If only everything stayed the same forever, that would be so great! Let's start a resistance to change movement and go back to the dark ages! Woohoo!
I bought one of those "POSs" last year and I'm perfectly happy with it. In fact I'm so content I have no interest in replacing it for some time.
Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I'm still happy because I avoided the worst network in the country (O2) by unlocking mine. Heh. I'm disappointed that it looks like I won't be able to upgrade because of in-store activation; but there's no way I'm joining the company that once presented me with a £400 phone bill because their billing system decided to amalgamate 3 months of usage (and yes, I had to pay it in the end). Currently I'm paying £22.50/month for service that would cost me £40 with O2, anyway; win-win. Even if I was a legit customer, the price plan increases offset the reduction in the handset price.
Thankfully, such concepts as "thinking things through" and "considering other points of view" will never trouble you, Xultar, in your quest for the trolling holy grail. I'm so glad you took the time to post here. The internet wouldn't be the same without you. Please don't come back.
Sidenote: Isn't it interesting how last year the iPhone was a 'rip-off' because of its high initial price, despite the fact that it worked out equal, or lower, than equivalent phones+plans over the course of a year? And that this year, those same people have already started saying it's a rip-off because the plans are more expensive, despite the low initial price? Funny how you can pick and choose what you report in order to create a particular impression, isn't it?
Better? To some..
Faster? Apparently..
Cheaper? Nope..
Cheaper phone + more expensive data plans = roughly the same. But still, more expensive in the long run.
Honestly, my iPhone gen. 1 is going to get a bit more life - I'm going to college next year where there's WiFi all over campus, and GPS isn't going to help me find my way around campus either anyways - even if I did have a reason to go 3G, I'm not too sure that the extra $10/month would be worth it. Apps >>>> 3G for me, and I figure that there are a lot of students out there that also don't need 3G or GPS and don't see the need to pay an extra $10/mo - Apple should have kept manufacturing the iPhone gen. 1, dropped the price to $149 and made it part of the back-to-school special (buy a Mac, get a free iPod).
Considering that CDN carrier (Rogers) will charge an arm & a leg & your wallet for ANY data (3g or edge), 1st gen iphones are just fine here since we use wifi for data anyways...
Hoped to see at least cut&paste in new iphone. Don't make me code it myself, cuz I will.
The 3G iPhone isn't cheaper when you consider the $10 a month hike in service over 2 years. That's $240 + $200 for the phone = $440.
$199? Your jokin! I'll give u a wiggly wig under the chin and a Italian fireplace?
Terry Tibbs
i am so sick of iPhone news, its a new phone with a touchscreen 3g and gps, i get it, its just a phone, now rank me down for being sick of apple
Oh it's fine to be sick of Apple, but I'm ranking you down for taking the time to come in here and comment about how much you hate it when you could have simply ignored this and every other Apple related article.
It's like complaining that there are show you don't like on TV. Change the damn channel and shut up.
Zak, you could have shut up yourself. Everyone's entitled to an opinion.
I'm not paying $30 a month for 3G I can't use in my home market of NE Wisconsin. I got a 2G iphone 3 days ago because I was worried about some of the stuff I was hearing and it looks like I was right. Sure I paid $200 more for the phone but,had I waited for 3G I'd end up paying it anyway for extra data costs...I highly doubt 3G is coming to WI outside of Madison/Milwaukee any time soon. So 3G is completely worthless to me and if ATT charges 3G prices in non-3G markets..that's just bad news.
Absolute bollocks! I was pseudo hyped about this until I realized that the state I live in (Iowa) has no 3G coverage...
Wah wah...
Keeping the old 8GB I guess.
wait.. are you saying we can't update our iPhones to 2.0!?!?
I mean of course 3G and GPS won't work.. but...
I wonder if they use tmobile will it work with 3G? I sure hope so!
You do know that T-Mobile only has 3G in New York, it may be years before the area you live in gets 3G coverage.
obviously, Engadget needs a completely new Apple section.
iGadget
That's what TUAW is supposed to be, but obviously Engadget feels the need to do the same things.
Never mind, that wouldn't help much, because we still see all of these engadget mobile stories that are posted both on engadget and engadget mobile.
The anti-Apple fanboys would just come there to spew their hate anyway and the Apple fanboys would spew their hate all over the other articles. It wouldn't solve anything.
Does anyone wanna buy my 16gb iphone? I'll unlock/jailbreak upon request and its only 2 1/2 months old. I'm sorry but I can't settle for anything under $220.
@Chris send me your contact info and maybe we can work something out :)
$150 and unlocked/jailbroken says I'll buy it. I'm happy with my N95-4 and don't really need 3G on another phone.
Chris I'll pay the FULL asking price $220 bucks.
Boratman@hotmail.com
I offered this to my friend and he might take me up on it so sorry if it doesn't work out but if the price is right I might just forget about him.
Also I need this phone until the day before the 3G iphone comes out as I don't have a phone to use until then.
Anyway email me and we'll see if we can work something out.
"unit was slow, GPS-less, closed to developers and way overpriced"
Funny. Engadget and the fanboys were not singing this tune when it first came out. In typical Apple fashion, the fanboys could not see what everyone else could, until they had a newer better version available. Reminds me of the whole "PPC is way faster/better/stronger than Intel" arguments they used to shout out back in the day (there was a freakishly unanimous 180-degree change the second Steve Jobs announced they were switching CPU's).
I'm keeping my 1st-gen model. The last thing I need is less surface area on the rear of my phone, causing it to slide off my dash and onto the floor of my car, there-by causing me to maneuver my vehicle into oncoming traffic while trying to pick the damn thing up.
But hey, at least the phone's new GPS skills could guide the ambulance to the nearest hospital... if they take my insurance, that is.
But seriously. While some of the new features are sexy, they aren't sexy enough for me to upgrade -- especially since they didn't give attention to the REAL annoyances of the phone (copy/past, flash animation, etc). And really, 2x faster is faster, but I was expecting better.
I'll keep mine until it's a paper weight, and as much as people would love to disagree with me, today is not that day.
Tell you what, I'll pay fifty cents for any working iPhone. You mail (pre-paid) me the phone and every thing that came with it, and I'll send you not one but two shiny quarters!
I'll have them recycled then take the proceeds to buy a HTC Diamond.
Does this really need a whole new post?
new iphone is difficult to jailbreak, unlock and activation is in store only. How about our folks from t-mobile that still want's an iphone? Mine is for sale for $500 bucks comes with aluminum back cover unlocked activated and jailbroken bitches! ROTFL Can't buy from apple coz they stop making this badboy.
Yo check ebay right now for iphones. Still 400 bucks and up biddings for 4GB I was right!! bwahahahahha. People would want my iphone more!!!
8gb imean
It won't be R.I.P before the 3G iPhone get an unlock :)
I heard the 4G iphone is coming out in August. R.I.P. 3G.
hi.... great job on the whole iphone..
would you accept $100 for the iphone 1.0?
thanks alot
so NO or would you be kind enough to accept $100?
let me know
thanks
As somebody who purchased an apple "toaster" (affectionately referred to as the classic Mac before it was classic) in 1984, I am totally not surprised that they would have these projected product death dates so that they could sell more product.
6 million people now have iphones that will be about as useful as a paperweight.
Rolling out that crappy iphone with technology that was three-plus years old was Steve's way of screwing over millions of people with high prices, bad data plans and the inside humor that they would be selling the phone they should have released in the first place to all the fan boys who lined up to buy the first one.
Like the Earth needs more junk! Thanks Apple!
I find it funny that most of my environmentalist friends think they're being anti-establishment and cool to embrace Apple as the actors in their commercial imply, but when you see them doing stuff like this, and you look up the history of crappy products they have rolled out to make a buck, it's hard to have any respect for them.
Amusingly iphone finally caught up to the technology of my Tilt, but truth be told; the cool kids are really playing with cooked Microsoft ROMs over at xda on HTC's...
Hey guys. I want a used iPhone. Sent me a email at samsaalfeld@live.com if you want to sell it to me! 200 range for a 8 gb will pay 300 and up for 16gb.
just saw this article, so it's probably gone but I'm wondering if your iphone is still up for grabs. willing to negotiate. reply to the post and i'll email you.
I dont know why everyone is selling off their iphones.
you do know that the first g3 is going to be the sucker phone with problems and bugs. Also unlocking software is going to tricky and not available for awhile.
I dont know why everyone is jumping the gun on this? Apples installer is going to
be slow and games pricey.
I love mac but mac is going to make a killing on 3rd party apps ive already been playing for free for a awhile now. So laugh it up ill be on my unlocked/jailbroken iphone playing mario while you think you are getting somewhere.
Wait a year till hackers can figure out how to make the 3g work to full potential ;o)
you know, i could post the following comment on any story and it would still be relevant (and funny):
i was trying to see this on my new iphone but it wouldn't load.
we are such tools of Steve Jobbs and his stupid iphone.
and while i'm at it, i am not a microsoft fanboy. i hate microsoft fanboys. and apple fanboys. there is no rite answer to the microsoft vs apple. different ppl have different needs. If you are just doing email and word processing then you need windows. if you are doing graphic design and stuff, then you need apple. apples are wayyy overpriced for what most people use them for. and ipods work fine on windows. if you have itunes. did i mention what tools we are of bill gates?