Word on the street is that Apple’s going to make a cheap version of the iPhone to fight off Android’s market share dominance. Problem is, there’s already a cheap iPhone for sale. You can buy it on Apple.com. There’s just one problem — it’s not cheap at all and you shouldn’t buy it.
Apple still sells the iPhone 4. You can get one for $0 if you sign a two-year contract. This, however, is a terrible deal — you’re better off buying the iPhone 5 outright and using it on StraightTalk.
The iPhone 4 was announced in the middle of 2010. Apple has been making the thing for two and a half years, and it still costs $450 to buy unlocked and contract-free. For reference, that’s $200 more than the Nokia Lumia 620, the cheap-o Windows phone, and $150 more than Google’s “top-of-the-line” Nexus 4. How much cheaper can we really expect the cheap iPhone to be?
Well, it’s not going to cost less than $200 unlocked, because that’s what the iPod Touch costs. And it has to cost less than $450, right?
Let’s use the Nexus 7/iPad Mini price conversion. The iPad Mini is 1.6x more expensive than the Nexus 7. Sure, it’s bigger, but they both target the small tablet market. Google’s Nexus 4 is $300, so 1.6 x $300 is $480 — $30 more than the current iPhone 4. What the hell?
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple prices the new “cheap” iPhone at $480. That’s their style — look, we made something cheap…er than what we’re already making! (Note: the iPhone 5 is $650, unlocked.) Everybody that expected discount pricing with the iPad Mini was wildly wrong. Honestly, $480, +/- $30 is probably a good price estimate for a ‘cheap’ iPhone.
But that price sucks. I’m sure some people will still pay it, but I just don’t think it’s going to work out. Why shell out for this thing when you can get a Windows phone for half that? If you really want to save $170 ($650 – $480), why not save another $180 and get the Nexus 4?
Apple, however, has to do it. They need to consolidate their screen sizes (and connector types) … which are pretty stupid reasons to do anything. They also have to sell more phones.







Why the StraightTalk “unlimited” data cap is complicated.
What’s the data cap on StraightTalk’s unlimited plan? Such a simple question. Such a difficult answer. It’s complicated. Here’s why.
See, StraightTalk uses both the T-Mobile and the AT&T network depending on the subscriber’s phone compatibility. I’m a StraightTalk AT&T user. Love the service, but how much data do I get? I don’t really know.
Unlike other MVNO providers that only use one network, using two makes things more complicated. T-Mobile is wonderfully loose with their data plans. Their $30 unlimited data plan gives you 4G speeds for up to 5GB a month. StraightTalk’s unlimited plan is $45 — 50% more — so they probably love selling customers cheap T-Mobile data. Meanwhile, AT&T is notoriously stingy with their data allocation. Red Pocket Mobile uses the the AT&T network and their top plan only provides 1GB of data and is $55. StraightTalk’s margins on AT&T’s network are probably a lot thinner. And that’s what makes the answer to how much data you get complicated.
So it depends. I’d guess their “unlimited” ceiling is around 1-2GB on AT&T and a lot higher on T-Mobile. But try to explain that to customers and it’s easy to see why they’d rather say nothing.