John Siracusa semi-famously doesn’t have an iPhone. The contract is too expensive for the use he suspects he’ll get out of it.
I, less famously, don’t have an iPhone either. Although I could get one with a monthly contract of about $ 15 (90 DKK). The cellphone market in Denmark seems much different than in the USA. Typically you’ll pay full price, or close to it, for the phone, but the contracts will typically be cheaper.
This is all fairly new. Just a few years ago all the carriers offered substantial subsidies and relatively expensive plans. However, by law a cellphone contract can only be binding for 6 months, so recouping the subsidy either meant very expensive plans, or retaining costumers beyond the reach of their contractual chains.
Businesses like certainty, and while someone who stays because he’s happy may be more valuable than someone who’s locked in place by a contract, the latter is something you can bank on.
So, what about that iPhone?
Well, it costs a lot. To buy an iPhone outright in Denmark costs 5000 DKK, which is about $ 880. That’s for a 16 gigabyte model. That’s a lot of money for a phone. I have an iPod Touch, which has worked well for me, but the truth is, I’m tired of carrying my five year old Nokia 6220 Classic next to my iPod Touch. Besides, my second generation iPod Touch is becoming a little frayed around the edges.
For five years, I’ve considered the iPhone, always knowing I’d succumb eventually. For 4 of those years I’ve felt the blossoming of the mobile app market and the location independence a modern smart phone affords its owner pass me by. The combination of crap Nokia “smart phone” and iPod Touch gave me some measure of the same thing, but anything network related has to be handled by the Nokia, and there’s no way to tether that to the iPod.
What about Android you nitwit?
For most of these last five years, I’ve considered an Android phone. But at first, Android phones sucked. Then they sucked a little less, and by the time Ice Cream Sandwich came around, they were pretty decent. But the general app quality lagged behind iOS. It seems to do so even to this day. And while Android Jelly Bean has much to recommend it, even above iOS, the app quality problem seems to be improving much more slowly.
Also… Well, let me talk about my other devices a little. I have a 2010 MacBook Pro, an iPad and the aforementioned iPod Touch. I use Pages occasionally, both on my iPad and on the Mac. I listen to podcasts on the iPod AND very frequently on the Mac as well. I need those two to stay in sync. (which is why I don’t use Downcast, Instacast or anything else like that). On top of that – whenever I’m not listening to podcasts, I’m most likely listening to an audiobook. Also, I’ve bought quite a few apps for iOS over the years, and although that may be a sunk cost fallacy, I’m still reluctant to leave the iOS eco system having already spent quite a bit on apps.
Android will not cater well to my needs. The Audiobook experience on Android is atrocious. I’ve looked and looked for a good app, but everything I’ve found sucks. Audible’s own app is actually quite decent, but I get my audiobooks from other sources as well.
Besides, the good Android phones are not actually cheap, and most are comically large monstrosities trying to move in on the Nexus 7.
And as much as I dislike Apple’s products, I dislike everything else even more.
I’m probably going to buy an iPhone very soon
Like I wrote, my iPod Touch is beginning to show its age, and as it turns out, so is my old Nokia Phone. I’m not going to buy a crap phone and a new iPod Touch. That would approach the price of an iPhone anyway. I’m not going to live without a phone (obviously) or my podcast/audiobook/reading machine (even more obviously at this point). So I think I’ll finally be joining the rest of the world as a modern smartphone owner. Honestly, I’m amazed I’ve held out this long. It feels like I’m just catching up to 2010 now, when some people are going the other way.