In Part 1 of this article, I laid out some of the main discussions regarding the iPhone's user interface and digital rights management restrictions.
Other popular topics that get tossed around in iPhone banter are - activation, pricing/plans, AT&T's data network, battery life, GSM phones and SIM cards and the future of telecom.
ACTIVATION:
Activation is another area where the iPhone receives a good deal of praise. Apple has configured its phone to allow purchasers to buy the phone from an Apple or AT&T store and then activate it at home via iTunes, instead of waiting at the store for the staff to take all your information and try to up-sell you on other products and services.
Some say this single feature will revolutionize the telecomm industry. Others say it’s cool but not “revolutionary” cool, especially since it does not skirt the $36 "activation fee."
PRICING & PLANS:
Everyone agrees – at $500 to $600, the iPhone is expensive, especially with reports that it costs about $250 to manufacture.
Going back to the DRM debate, many say the price would be worth it if the phone was unlocked and iChat and Skype were enabled.
Even so, with the most meager AT&T iPhone plan ($59.99 a month for 450 minutes & 200 texts), that comes to about $1,975 over 2 years (including the $36 activation fee).
You can up your minutes to 1,350 for $99.99 a month, which brings the grand total to $2,936 (still with 200 texts). Finally, for iSplurgers - there's a plan for 6,000 minutes at $220 a month ......$5,816.
In terms of signing on the dotted line, there is an interesting twist on the multi-year contract with the iPhone.
Anyone who has a cell phone in the U.S. knows that you always have to enter into a one-year contract, and its often longer than that. If you break your contract, you have to cough up a termination fee, and if you upgrade phones or services with your carrier, you often have to extend your current contract.
The iPhone requires a two-year contract, but only for those people with good credit.
If a consumer has bad credit, they can still buy an iPhone, but their service with AT&T is limited to month-to-month.
The situation is a bit topsy-turvy, as most people with good credit do not want to be locked into 2 year contracts, and people with bad credit are probably looking for something more stable than month-to-month phone contracts.
For people who just want to have a wifi enabled device – getting kicked off AT&T after one month might be a benefit.
A major question is how this will apply in Europe, where it is commonly the case that consumers buy their phones separately from their plans and where contracts are usually shorter than two years.
AT&T’S DATA NETWORK:
iPhone owners can use the internet on their phones in one of two ways – they can either use a generally available wifi source, for example from a coffee shop; or they can use AT&T’s Edge network, on an unlimited data plan which comes with the phone.
The central complaint of the Edge network before the release of the iPhone was that it was terribly slow compared to other networks.
Just before the iPhone came out, people already on AT&T using the Edge network noticed faster data flow, reaching up to 200 kbits per second, which seemed like an indication that AT&T had upgraded its network somewhat in preparation for the iPhone release.
The rumors are true - AT&T spent $50 million updating its data network in anticipation of the iPhone. However, the average speed still seems to be around 100 kbits/s. Compared to Verizon's data network, which gets about 600 kbits/s (up to 1.4 mbits/s), that's still pretty slow.
BATTERY LIFE:
Initial reports from Apple back in the spring were that the iPhone’s battery life was around 4 or 5 hours for talk time, internet surfing and video playback, and 16 hours of audio playback.
Now Apple is claiming: 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback. Just sitting in standby mode, the device will last 250 hours.
Check out this nice chart on Nanocr.eu to see how the iPhone stacks up against other smart phones.
Of course, there are several tricks to getting the most out of your battery life, including laying off long calls and lessening the brightness of the screen display.
GSM PHONE & SIM CARD
The iPhone is a GSM phone with a SIM card.
The term "GSM" originally comes from "Groupe Special Mobile," which was the group started in 1982 by the European Conference of Postal & Telecom Administrations to create a Europe-wide standard for mobile phones.
The standard spread, and in 1991 the first GSM network was created. but today in the U.S. it is typically understood as "Global System for Mobile communications."
Today, millions of people all over the world are using the GSM standard.
GSM has been late in coming the U.S., where the CDMA standard is more the norm. Sprint-Nextel & Verizon are on CDMA. AT&T-Cingular is on GSM.
"SIM" standards for "Subscriber Identity Module." A SIM card is just a little electronic smart card that sticks into your mobile phone and contains your service-subscriber identification.
SIM cards are removable. As I understand it, you can change phones by taking the SIM card out of one smart phone & plugging it into another. Everything should work, but your voice mail may be affected.
GSM phones require SIM cards. The iPhone is a GSM phone, so the iPhone requires a SIM card. The SIM card must be inserted for the iPhone to be activated properly.
Even without the SIM card, you can still use the iPhone as a wireless internet device and an iPod.
Here’s a demonstration on CNET's Crave.
Many iCritics have complained about Apple’s choice of making a GSM phone because CDMA has many advantages.
iFans note, however, that even though AT&T is the only major carrier in the U.S. using GSM, GSM is the network used by most mobile carriers in the world.
Thus, GSM will allow Apple to build to world-wide markets instead of having to custom design phones for different networks, like other phone makers such as Nokia and Motorola.
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