O2 have just announced their iPhone v4 handset pricing and released that alongside their tariffs here:
http://shop.o2.co.uk/new-iphone/tariffs.htmlTariffInterestingly the price of the handset doesn’t alter on the 1200 minutes per month tariff whether you sign up for 18 or 24 months but the price per month for the tariff does. So which is better - 18 months at £50, or 24 months at £45?
Well to answer that we need to think about what will happen after 18 months. There won’t be a new iPhone 18 months from now so presumably after 18 months, if you're on an 18 month tariff, you'll switch to Simplicity 30 and get the same 1200 tariff for £35 (£15 cheaper than you'd have paid for months 1-18).
How do the numbers compare?
• If you were on the iPhone 1200 tariff for 24 months at £45 you’d save £120 (£5 per month * 24 months) compared to staying on the 18 month version for 24 months.
• If you were on the iPhone 1200 tariff for 18 months at £50, and then switched to simplicity 30 for the remaining 6 months you’d pay £90 more initially and then save £15 per month for the last 6 months. £90 – (£15 * 6)= £0
So the cost is exactly the same. There’s an advantage to being on an 18 month contract in that you’re out of the lock-in sooner, but the downside is that you’ve got to pay £5 more per month for months 1-18 and you’ve got to remember to change tariff on the correct date (if you’re a month late you’d have been better signing up for 24 months). Of course if you change tariffs down to something much cheaper on month 18 then all bets are off, I'm just looking at the different ways o2 are charging for the identical 1200mins, 750mb, unlimited texts deal.
Capacity - 16 or 32GB?When I bought the original iPhone and the 3G I got the highest capacity available, but this time I'll be happy with the smallest 16gb unit. Clearly your mileage will vary depending on how much music you like to carry around, but for me personally experience with my previous 2 iPhones shows me that I don't need more than 16gb. In fact 8gb, or even 4gb, would most likely be fine for me!
So these are the reasons why I'll be ordering a 16gb on a 24 month tariff. Now I just need to decide whether I want white or black...
Labels: iphone v4, o2 handset price, o2 tariff