The small print stinks: No iPod features without service plan

"20. 5-year exclusive deal, what B.S. that is! I'm only 45 miles north of NYC, and AT&T has no coverage in my area. Did the execs at Apple think about scenarios like this before locking AT&T into a 5-year exclusive? Obviously not.
This phone should have been distributed like the Razor, all carriers, everywhere. I think this exclusive AT&T deal will play a big part in the failure of this phone.

Posted at 12:21PM on Jun 26th 2007 by Scott"

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I agree COMPLETELY. I have a feeling that Apple was approached by AT&T with the exclusive offer and a big paycheck if they accepted. I'm not sure how the mobile market is in other states, but here in Michigan Alltel, Verizon, and Sprint are the three biggest cell providers, and I've heard that T-Mobile is a major provider elsewhere. This leads me to believe that AT&T saw the coming of the iPhone as a way for them to increase their cell contract sales, and, well, it worked.

But if Apple was stupid enough to not see what they were getting themselves into concerning coverage area and such, I put the blame on them for the situation entirely. AT&T has been around forever and they've always had shady business practices and terrible customer support, so Apple should've seen what they were doing.

Why they didn't release the iPhone to every cell provider is beyond me.. by the time the 5-year deal with AT&T is up, the iPhone will be old news and outdated hardware. And keep in mind, if they don't do well enough in sales (or product returns), they might not sign on for an iPhone 2.0.

My point: AT&T sucks balls but I want an iPhone anyway. Looks like I'm waiting until someone figures out how to unlock them and make them useable on other networks. Blah.

Yeah this plan is awesome i will saving 80 bucks a month

I pay $180.00 a month for the service on my Q with verizon.

This was better then expected !!

Sony PSP: best deal on a wi-fi net browser. period. besides, why use up all your phone juice on your tunes/surfing? Have you seen the PSP interface? not multi-touch, but way better for games.

Crap eyeball-whoring/flamebait. Don't you have any pride?

Given the fact that these are being activated at home through the iTunes Store, it strikes me that there must be a either a GoPhone option or very relaxed credit approval criteria.
Otherwise a bunch of those shiny new iPhones will be going back to the store when the buyers fail to get approved....

I've been reading comments here as well as on Engadget about how people are frustrated that they can't use their iphone as an ipod/browser/whatever without using it as a phone. This perplexes me.

Consider the following. After a few weeks of being in the market for one, you buy a car because it's got heated leather seats, a sweet 12-speaker stereo, and a GPS nav system. You get it home, and in a few days' time, you discover that the gas has run out. Your seat heat, music, and navigation functions no longer work. Furious at the thought of having to pay for gas to make these functions return, you storm about the internets, telling everyone how angry you are.

Now replace the words car, seats, stereo, GPS, and gas with iphone, wifi, itunes, email, and contract. Ask anyone to tell you what the iphone is in only one word, and they'll say "phone." Now also think about every time a sexy new handset has been released, and you'll realize that you not only pay more for the luxury of having the newest/best/slickest, you also subscribe to a contract of a year or more (I realize that subsidies are typically included for your commitment, bear with me).

If you want ipod functionality, get an ipod. If Apple's current offerings don't suit your needs, get an Archos, or a Zune, or a [insert PMP here]. If you want a widescreen touchscreen ipod, wait til Apple releases one.

But for Jobs' sake, don't spend your money on a car when what you really want is a la-z-boy recliner.

That is one of the catches I was worried about.

Now once we get this 500lb gorilla out the door for a month or two, maybe we can finally see a REAL iPod update and get something usable for the masses.

Apple needs to release something like the Nokia n800. No Service Plan Required -- Hint, Hint!

so will we just have to wait and see on the gophone option?

see if the SIM tray actually provides access for us to flip the SIM (or if that will even matter?)

No one is making you buy this thing. Apple has done a good job of making you WANT it, though.

Now for anyone who asks "What gives them the right...?", I say they don't have the right to make you do anything. If you don't like the terms, don't by the iPhone. There's NOTHING they can do about it. You have ALL the power, if you're only willing to do without this new toy.

Enjoy the power of the consumer.

Er... if you want an iPhone as an iPod, for heaven's sake, don't buy an iPhone. Wait a few months for the inevitable high-end iPod model running OS X Mini this holiday season.