61–70 of 233 posts
I recently went to the US for a few weeks. My Nexus 4 worked just fine with a US SIM from T-Mobile. $70 for a month for voice and data was worth it, and everything worked quite nicely. Big +1 for unlocked products!
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Don't worry, you're paying that entire $650 (and usually then some). It's just hidden in your contract price.
THIS is what I don't understand. Why do people call it "subsidized" when you're locked in to a 2 year contract with an early termination fee. IT IS NOT SUBSIDIZED, PEOPLE. You may say, well I'm paying the same per month whether I take a new phone or not from the carrier, so... it's subsidized right? Nope, they're just gouging you when you're on an old phone. Taking the new phone just slightly reduces your disadvantag…
My wife has about £100/month disposable income and pays about £30/month for her handset and contract. When her renewal comes around she can buy the handset for, say £400. Apart from to get that £400 she needs to go without beer and eating out and new shoes for 4 months (never going to happen). Or make do with less for, say, a year (very unlikely given she doesn't really care enough about handsets).
Her alternatives are to take the contract and handset bundle or to buy the handset on credit. Assuming she takes a SIM-only plan like mine (£13/month with limits I've never exceeded) that leaves her with £17/month to pay off the credit on £400. I've not done the figures but I'd say that probably works out at around two years - so it doesn't really give her any advantage beyond avoiding lock-in; which she'll only care about if we change country (remember she's not really bothered about handsets)
Which is all a long way of saying that many people's priorities aren't the same as ours (by which I mean frequenters of Hacker News) - which alters the equation and makes buying off-contract less appealing than getting everything up-front and paying for it over time.
Edit: typos
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#1 is not a GS3 problem, it is a carrier problem specific to Vodafone, which had a marketing deal with Pizza Hut at the time of the GS3's release. Other carriers did not forcibly include undeletable Pizza Hut bookmarks.
No. It's a Samsung problem. You don't see crapware on iPhones do you?
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Is the Pizza Hut bookmark from Vodafone or Samsung? I have a Galaxy S 3 from T-Mobile and I don't have any bookmarks like that. It does have useless undeletable T-Mobile apps, but that's clearly T-Mobile's fault.
It's also clearly Samsung's fault for not simply refusing to include those apps.
I guess so. I'm not sure they have as much leverage as Apple did with the iPhone. (Fun aside: Verizon was Apple's first choice for a launch carrier, but Verizon balked at the level of control they wanted over the device. Well, that and the cut of the monthly data plan fee.)
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No. It's a Samsung problem. You don't see crapware on iPhones do you?
I don't like it any more than you, but to Samsung and its investors, the undeletable Pizza Hut bookmark is a feature. Not only does it generate additional revenue with little additional design time, but it also indicates that Samsung has a healthy and attractive business in which other businesses would like to participate.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
#1 is not a GS3 problem, it is a carrier problem specific to Vodafone, which had a marketing deal with Pizza Hut at the time of the GS3's release. Other carriers did not forcibly include undeletable Pizza Hut bookmarks.
Would Apple let Vodafone do the same?
Or the more general case of allowing carriers to mandate restrictions that Apple do certain things that provide a poorer experience? Of course.
I think that this is a great opportunity to clarify laws. There are a few EU countries that require phones to be SIM-unlocked at the end of contracts. The question is - will this fall foul of those laws, as people can use the device with other carriers in Europe but not outside? There will presumably be a court case around this (as it's the first one) and the result will probably force even more openness for EU citiz…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't worry, you're paying that entire $650 (and usually then some). It's just hidden in your contract price.
THIS is what I don't understand. Why do people call it "subsidized" when you're locked in to a 2 year contract with an early termination fee. IT IS NOT SUBSIDIZED, PEOPLE. You may say, well I'm paying the same per month whether I take a new phone or not from the carrier, so... it's subsidized right? Nope, they're just gouging you when you're on an old phone. Taking the new phone just slightly reduces your disadvantag…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't worry, you're paying that entire $650 (and usually then some). It's just hidden in your contract price.
THIS is what I don't understand. Why do people call it "subsidized" when you're locked in to a 2 year contract with an early termination fee. IT IS NOT SUBSIDIZED, PEOPLE. You may say, well I'm paying the same per month whether I take a new phone or not from the carrier, so... it's subsidized right? Nope, they're just gouging you when you're on an old phone. Taking the new phone just slightly reduces your disadvantag…