BillShrink Determines Total Cost of iPhone 4
June 24, 2010
Each new iPhone 4 purchase naturally comes with another 2-year contract commitment with AT&T. With that being said, Billshrink has run the numbers and has concluded that the iPhone 4 has the cheapest total cost of ownership compared to other smart phones on the market, when you compare minimum pricing plans for each.
The site compared the iPhone 4 with the Droid Incredible, Evo 4G and Nexus One. It assumes that you are a iPhone 4 16 GB user (a 32 GB model is available, of course), and that your minimum monthly plan from AT&T is set at $74.99 which includes 450 voice minutes, unlimited messaging plus 200 MB of data. One thing to consider, however, is that since AT&T has dropped unlimited data plans for all new iPhone 4 customers, these numbers might be slightly tipped in Apple's favor, since the study does not take into account possible data plan overages that could happen with iPhone 4 customers. Nonetheless, the study summaries "unlimited" data plans for each smart phone versus a "minimum" data plan for each.iPhone 4 - "unlimited" - $2,959; "minimum" - $1,999 Droid Incredible - $3,079, $2,359 Evo 4G - $2,839, $2,119 Nexus One - $2,449, $2,099Therefore, the iPhone 4 has the cheapest total cost of ownership when you compare the "minimum" pricing plans. However, the iPhone 4 has the 2nd highest cost of ownership when you look at "unlimited" pricing plans. Only the Droid Incredible costs more over the 2-year contract commitment. Of course, the iPhone 4 is the only smart phone presented that enjoys the benefits of the App Store, since all others use the Droid market. Here are the complete details of the study:
