iPhone or Macbook Air: Which will save you the $$s?

The best value is the Macbook.

I think the whole debate ends at "or you can unlock it"

"All things considered though, if you're looking at an AT&T contract, there's not too big a difference between putting the Internet into your pants and putting it into an office envelope."

Really? I put the Internet into my pants for a lot less, without some silly contract, and yet manage to have it in all the same places a MBA will have it.

How? I bought an iPod touch. It's silly to compare an iPhone with an MBA if you're talking about Internet connectivity and usage, as the iPhone has EDGE and an MBA doesn't and must rely on Wi-Fi. So if you just need the ability to surf wherever Wi-Fi is available, an iPod touch is a great device (and one that is enticing me to leave my lovely 12-inch iBook G4 at home during the school day...). If you need always-on access, no matter the speed or cost, you upgrade to an iPhone, and pay the cost both upfront and over the length of the contract. Simple as that.

I agree somewhat with the cost issues.

iPhone is locked down severely, as of THIS moment, is is just as locked down to a small set of features as the "free" camera-flip-phone you get with $29.99 cell phone contracts of the same duration. Even the "free" phones have small games and personal apps you can pay to get, iPhone's delivered NOTHING YET. The SDK is looking like it might be real in time for iPhone to turn 1 year old. So if you bought the iPhone for full price on day 1 what have you gained MORE that the cheapest camera phone during this first year?

As far as the Air, again, what does it gain over the cheap Everex or EeePC. They run Linux, It doesn't run Windows programs without buying an expensive upgrade so it's an island. It's more powerful than these cheap ones, but it can't play any games much better either. It's accessories are expensive and NOT compatible with other MACS (and I was lining up to buy that mini DVD drive for my macbook!) let alone PCs. The whole "not a primary PC" bit is typical Apple whining at it's best. If it was Cheaper it would not be an excuse, but for MORE money, please include accessories to round out the features. Again, the issue is not the cost (I think the Air is inline for it's size/power ratio) but what does it offer MORE than a $399 cheap PC if all you'll do is surf and not run any "desktop" power apps?

I swear TUAW must be Dvorak's new website. I read the dumbest things here. Whether I own an iPhone, Treo, RAZR, or cheap ass Nokia that can barely make phone calls, I'm still paying a monthly cellphone bill! All the iPhone did was raise my cell phone bill by $7 a month after taxes. And I get some much more use out of it then my old phone. Sheesh, I'm almost embarrassed that I read - let alone respond - to this kind of tripe.

Yes, that was my point... when the Touch can work like my iPod video, as an external USB drive.

I don't need any apps on my "satellite" device[other than web & IMAP email], but I do need storage and transfer for my conference presentations, marketing materials and misc. PDFs. Come to think of it... mobilePreview would be a nice app Apple could add once storage is in place.

Enough of trashing Erica. Maybe a better discussion is the value of the $20/month data plan on Edge vs. a $60/month charge on a 3G network. The reason I bought an iPhone is because I didn't feel there were enough free wifi hotspots and I was willing to pay $20/month for 150KB speed but not $60/month for 3G. By the way, what is the speed of 3G?

Bad comparison... should MBA vs. iPod Touch... only thing missing from the Touch is disk storage. Then the Touch wins! Buy two... one in the briefcase, one in the jeans.

It's not really fair to lump the cost of service with the phone. It would only come out to $2000 assuming you've never had cell phone service period. That dollar figure gets lower depending on how much service you have (number of minutes, did you have a data plan or not, etc.).

My situation may be different than most. I already had a contract with AT&T and purchasing the iPhone actually lowered my monthly bill by a few dollars a month. I bought the 16 gig model as a replacement for my current phone and iPod Nano. by selling both of them it came out to around $230 (I'm accounting for tax) to purchase the phone outright.

If we're going to lump in the cost of service over the lifetime of the contract, I'm saving about $5 a month over my previous contract. In 2 years that's a savings of $120. So to upgrade to a new phone its effectively costing me $110. That's pretty good IMO.

The more fair comparison would be to compare the macbook air to the ipod touch. You can't make calls with the mba. it can't get online without being at a wireless hotspot, much like the touch