Being Less Poor: iPhone Madness

As always, keep in mind that there are two reasons why people are poor:

- They do not earn enough money
- They spend too much money

People dwell too much on reason one and tend to ignore reason two.

Good discipline in controlling spending can do a lot to stretch income, especially the more limited a person's income is.

Part of that discipline means avoiding products like the $600 iPhone. (The 4 gig model is only $500, but come on, your going to need the additional storage available in the 8 gig phone.) Sure, the iPhone is cool, but at the end of the day, it is still only a phone. It is not a camera or a computer.

Phones in general are cheap, as long as you are not too picky. You most likely already have one, if not more than that. So, do you really need to replace your current phone with a very expensive upgrade? Do you need the ability to read the internet wherever you are? The answer for most of you is no, especially if your driving to and from work. It is another story if you have a long commute by bus or train. Once at work, chances are your sitting in front of a computer all day long.

Still, commuting by public transport is not a reason to buy an iPhone. Just print out what you want to read on the commute home out at work. Sure, the iPhone might be useful for business users, but they probably already have a Blackberry. How much more connected do you want to get? If they need an iPhone for work, they will end up getting the thing for free.

Is it worth spending $600 to have the ability to find the nearest sushi restaurant? You probably already know where they are. Not only that, but other phones can provide that sort of service already, as can dialing information or even asking any of the people you are walking past on the street.

For most of us, the iPhone is not much more than a very expensive toy. A toy that (once you buy it) comes with a monthly bill. And if you do buy one, what are you going to do with your existing phone contract? Getting rid of your current phone agreement can be expensive as well.

Now you could use the $600 to pay off part of your credit card debt. You were planning to pay for the iPhone in cash right? Do you really want to add $600 to your credit card debt?

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Update: 5 July
This phone will actually cost you around $3,000 over two years:

What happens after two years? (When your AT&T Contract expires)

There dear readers lays the moral dilemma. As it stands, unless your iPhone is connected to the AT&T network you can't use it for anything. Therefore when your contract expires, even if you hate your AT&T mobile service, you will have to keep paying a monthly phone connection fee if you want to keep your iPod. Otherwise you will have spent around $3000 including your upfront cash for a paperweight. To put it simply, this is nothing short of outrageous. - ITWire

Wow! This phone drains your cash almost as fast as a boat.

This post incorporates a good number of points already discussed in these following previous posts:

Being Less Poor - 27 October 2005
Being Less Poor: Update - 18 June 2006
Being Less Poor: Playstation 3 Flatscreen Christmas Edition - 26 November 2006

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