WILL THE iPHONE MAKE CONSUMERS iRATE?

[IE]

BetUS.com Posts Odds on Apple?s iPhone

June 25, New York ? Once the highly-anticipated iPhone hits shelves June 29th, months of waiting will cease and the phone of the future will become available. Although the release is days away, electronic consumers are becoming more keyed up than children at Christmas for the most technologically advanced cellular telephone to date.

However, as history shows, new technologies suffer from bugs, defects and unrealistic expectations. As enthusiasm for the revolutionary phone rises, skepticism is also mounting. Analysts at BetUS.com, the largest and most respected sportsbook on the web, posted odds on the iPhone.

"This phone has everything but the kitchen sink,? stated BetUS.com spokesman Reed Richards. ?With the seemingly endless options that the phone offers, the chances for a malfunction are likely.?

BetUS.com posts odds on the iPhone:
Consumers are reported camping out waiting for an iPhone - 3/1
Initial iPhones get recalled - 30/1
iPhone sells at least 12 Million units in 2008 - 5/6
Apple?s stock jumps at least 10% in value in regards to the price on 6/30/07 - 1/2
Consumers pay at least three times the original price ($1500) on ebay - 2/1
The screen breaks/cracks like first generation nano - 150/1
There are mass reports of the battery life being less than the promised 8 hours -10/1
Someone is trampled while trying to get an iPhone - 20/1
iPhone spontaneously combusts - 150/1

How many iPhones will Apple sell in the first month?
Over 1.2 Million Units - 5/6
Under 1.2 Million Units - 5/6


Additional sports and newsworthy odds can be found at www.BetUS.com

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[DR STRANGELOVE]

I'll be camping out.

 

[Penguinfan]

I'll admit to not keeping up with this, but what service will they be on (verizon, Att, Cingular, etc..) and how much will service cost?

 

[vinnie]

Real Cost of iPhone: Service Plan Revealed
Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:14PM EDT
See Comments (845)
At long last the final shoe on iPhone has dropped: The cost of voice and data plans that you'll have to buy from AT&T when you purchase the device. The good news: It's not as bad as some had feared. The bad news: It's still going to cost you a pretty penny if you're used to paying $40 a month for a basic service plan.

Here's the damage: $60 a month for 450 minutes. $80 for 900 minutes. $100 for 1350 minutes. If you need even more minutes, plans continue to climb up to $220 a month for a whopping 6000 minutes. The good news: All plans include unlimited email and web, rollover minutes, unlimited mobile-to-mobile, and 200 text messages a month. All except the cheapest plan include unlimited nights and weekends minutes; the cheapest plan includes a mere 5000 of those. Contrary to earlier rumors there is no voice-only option for the iPhone: Remember you need data service to do all the cool email/web/mapping business that makes iPhone an iPhone, otherwise you've pretty much got a pretty brick in your pocket that can play Avril Lavigne tunes. Additional details are here.


Is this a good deal? Let's compare. AT&T's cheapest voice-only plan costs $40 a month for 450 minutes, 5000 nights and weekend minutes, and no data services at all. (Even text messages are about 15 cents a pop.) Adding $20 a month for unlimited web isn't a bad deal. For the $60 of the iPhone's cheapest plan, you can get AT&T's 900-minute plan with no data service.

Looking at it another way, AT&T's Messaging Unlimited plan (unlimited MMS/SMS messages) costs $20 a month extra. Its unlimited messaging and media plan (which gives you access to cellular video as well) costs another $40 a month. The company has a variety of data plans for web browsing phones. The closest to what the iPhone gets you is SmartPhone Max, at $30 extra per month.

Whew, that's a lot of numbers. Putting it all together, designing a comparable plan to iPhone's $60 service on AT&T with a non-iPhone device would actually cost about $70 a month. Believe it or not, iPhone service is actually a bargain!

On the other hand, $60 a month or more isn't cheap. Over the life of the phone that equates to $1,440. Add in the price of the phone and activation fees and the cheapest amount you'll spend on an iPhone over the next two years is $1,975. You can almost buy a brand new MacBook Pro for that outlay. And don't forget the cancellation fee you'll pay on your old phone...

Overall I'm pleased. AT&T could have gouged consumers with a $100/month plan and few people would have flinched. Instead the company is offering an affordable option that should help to ease the sting of that initial $500 or $600 outlay. That said, I'm sure many will still find the plan too expensive. As always, I await your thoughts, opinions, and rants on the topic.

 

[vinnie]

SAN FRANCISCO - On the eve of the day of reckoning for the most-hyped gadget in recent memory, eager customers lined up Thursday, a few even braving torrential rain, to be among the first to get their hands on the coveted new cell phone from Apple Inc.

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The gadget, which combines the functions of a cell phone, iPod and wireless Web browser, will go on sale in the United States at Apple and AT&T stores at 6 p.m. Friday in each time zone.

It's been the focus of endless anticipatory chatter and even parodied on late-night TV. It's hogged so much of the media spotlight, a St. Paul, Minn., minor league baseball team planned to spoof its porcine mascot by selling a real 'iPig.'

"This phone is going to blow everything out of the water," Tony Cecchini, 40, a San Antonio, Texas, air conditioner salesman said while braving a downpour to wait outside an AT&T store Thursday morning.

Apple and AT&T Inc. ? the phone's exclusive cellular carrier ? have not disclosed how many units will be available at launch, adding to the frenzy that more typically accompanies the releases of video game consoles.

Featuring a 3.5-inch touch-screen display, the iPhone will cost $499 for a 4-gigabyte model and $599 for an 8-gigabyte edition.

People armed with sleeping bags and folding chairs started lining up on Monday outside Apple's flagship store in New York City, but in the company's San Francisco Bay area backyard, residents apparently took a more laid-back approach and didn't start queuing up until Thursday.

"I got here at 8 a.m. and was shocked I was the first in line," said Jerry Taylor, 54, a San Francisco marketing consultant and longtime Macintosh computer user who set up a golf-putting green on the sidewalk to keep himself and a friend entertained.

Others were looking to turn a quick profit, expecting the product to sell out quickly and drive up online auction bids to triple the retail price. Apple said it was limiting purchases to two per person at its retail stores, while AT&T said it would impose a purchase limit of one per person at its stores.

"We're college kids looking for money," said Josh May, 18, of Benecia, Calif., who with four buddies formed an ad hoc business called "iWait" to stand in line for people who couldn't do it themselves. May and his friends were the first ones in line at the Apple store in downtown Walnut Creek, Calif., after arriving there Wednesday.

Other companies, including Playboy, tried to catch a ride on the iPhone publicity wave.

"Steve Jobs has delivered the hardware and now Hugh Hefner has delivered the software," Playboy stated in announcing its fresh "iPlayboy" offerings ? free downloads of wallpaper photos and videos "customized" for the iPhone.

In San Antonio, AT&T's hometown, Cecchini and his wife, Liz, arrived at 7:30 a.m. Thursday to be the first ? and only ones ? in line at the AT&T store. The couple hopes to pick up three of the 8-gig models ? one for each of them, and one for their 15-year-old daughter, who has already been warned not to take hers to school.

Tony Cecchini, who planned to trade in his Treo smart phone from Palm Inc. for an iPhone, said he's convinced designers have figured out how to fully integrate features that are cumbersome on other phones.

"This phone is the cutting edge," he said.

Executives at rival smart phone makers nervously awaited initial iPhone sales figures from Apple.

"I've never seen the kind of feeding frenzy we've seen in the media," Palm CEO Ed Colligan said during a conference call with analysts Thursday. Palm reported a 43 percent plunge in its fourth-quarter profits amid rising costs and blistering competition that offset record Treo sales.

"We expect it to be a very successful product ? but I don't know how it can possibly live up to the hype," Colligan said.

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