Rethinking the new iPhone.

AT&T finally announced their plans for the new iPhone and the news is not so good. I did anticipate the ten dollar increase for the data plan and was willing to pay it for the increased speed of the 3G network. What I’m still trying to figure out is where AT&T has discovered that SMS messages are no longer data. The previous plan for the first gen iPhone included 200 text messages. Now, since SMS ones and zeroes are apparently different from the data ones and zeroes, you get to pay another five dollars for those same 200 messages.

The score now is a total of fifteen bucks for them and nothing really added for me.

I used 872 text messages during my last billing cycle. If were to continue at that rate, I would have to increase my allowance to the 1500 plan - fifteen bucks. So, now we’re looking at twenty-five dollars total more each month. Three hundred extra dollars a year for the same service I have now. Granted, the AT&T subsidy of the phone makes up for that if you look at the lifetime cost but I just feel like the new plan nickel and dimes users.

I know that I’ll end up with a new iPhone, even after all of this. I’ll have to change my Twittering-via-SMS ways and stick with Hahlo. I should then have no problem with the 200 message plan. I’ll still be paying fifteen bucks more each month and I’ll still be grumbling about it but I’ll also have the added speed, more storage on the device and GPS. I don’t travel to make use of GPS in traditional ways but I think that there will be some very interesting location-based apps coming down the road and having my photos geo-tagged will be kind of nice.

So yeah…all whine, no spine.