Will $65 iPhones make people decide against the Pre?

Posted by pre-nerd on Friday, June 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Today is iPhone 3GS day and the web is all abuzz about the new toy from Apple. Even though many are flocking for the new one, many other people are picking up the older 3G for themselves and for good reason. If you use Bing Cashback you can get 35% off your purchase which means that you can get an iPhone for as little as $65.

In the end, this may get a lot of people jazzed, but you have to think about total cost of ownership (TC0).

If you have were to buy a 3G for $65 and use a modest plan you’re going to pay $84 per month ($30 for internet, $39.99 for 450 minutes, and $15 for 1,500 text messages) – Total = $2,081

If you were to buy a Palm Pre for $199 and get the Simply Everything Data 450 plan for $69.99 per month then your total is $1,878.76.

Yup, even at $65 buying a Pre just makes more sense. Once people get past what they’ve heard about Sprint and try it out, they’ll be delightfully surprised.