Many existing iPhone owners are indicating that they are going to sell their existing 3G phone and get a PAYG, into which they will pop their contract SIM which means when the next 'real' upgrade happens in June/July 2010 they won't get stung by O2's greed.
Given that many of the new features will be available to existing owners through the software upgrade on the 17th this is starting to make a lot of sense, depending on your usage profile.
Unless something changes O2 is gong to see a lot of people downgrading their tariff and choosing not to renew their contract upon expiry.
Thanks to colmaclean at Macrumors for the table above.
Thanks. This is a good summary table. What might add to it as an insteresting comparison would be adding the cost of an equivalent O2 Simplicity monthly SIM (i.e no contract) onto the pay-as-you go handset price to compare TCO vs the iPhone subsidy rate.
ReplyDeletee.g: 32GB 3GS @ £538.30 + ~£30 per month for simplicity (1000 texts, 1200 mins, data bolt-on) over 18 months.
I'm currently considering selling my existing iPhone 2G on eBay and then purchasing the 3GS outright to continue on my simplicity tarrif. The total cost of ownership would work out about the same as the equivalent 18 month contract, but there would be no tie-in. The only diwnside (other than up-front investment) would be lack of visual voicemail and the fact that I'd have to pay extra for the Wifi bolt-on.
Has anyone tried putting their old contract SIM in a PAYG iPhone? Did you get visual voicemail?
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Tom
I have a Simplicity O2 sim in my existing iPhone and everything works fine except for visual voicemail. I'm unclear from the O2 blurb as to whether the 3GS pay as you go phone will *only* work with a pay as you go sim, or if it will work with any O2 sim. I'd be a bit annoyed if it didn't work with simplicity, because they've already made their handset revenue from the up-front sale, so net-net, O2 still gets its pound of flesh.
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