Comments on: What’s the ROI on an iPhone?

By: The LeanLifeCoach

The LeanLifeCoach — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:25:37 +0000

The $100 is based on the monthly unlimited plan that most people I know have signed up for. Looking at AT&T’s site the plans start at 39.99 for 450 minutes with the “additional” fee you are at $70 minimum. Still not cheap but less than I wrote about, you are correct.

Thank you for the feedback on pic2go, J.Money implied some use this but I cannot recall ever seeing anyone in a store using the technology. It’s good to hear someone is getting some use out of it. The question I have though is if people get enough discounts to pay for the cost of the phone?

By: Lightshiner

Lightshiner — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:20:40 +0000

You make some valid points about how we can justify an emotional purchase without considering the ROI. However, I’ve owned an iphone for almost 2 years now. I don’t understand where the $100/month expense comes from. We have the same family plan that we had before the iphone purchase. The only “additional” fee is $30 for unlimited internet. As far as the apps 95% of the ones I have were free. I purchased maybe 10 for 99 cents and maybe five or so that were $1.99 over the almost two year period since the purchase. On the flip side just having the GPS app which comes free with the phone has allowed me to get where I needed to be numerous times. I’ve also use an app called “pic2go” that allows you scan or enter a products bar code and shows you where the item can be purchased and the price so that you can make an informed decision. I also do these puzzles called cross sums which I used to order from Penny Press for about $5 per book. Now the app is on the iphone and I can do them to my heart’s content. Just with this few things mentioned I would have a “positive” ROI with not even counting the other benefits.

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Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:15:55 +0000

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By: The LeanLifeCoach

The LeanLifeCoach — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:51:48 +0000

@MBAbriefs… honestly putting together this post has caused me to rethink my own perspectives a little more. There was a day I considered an iPhone, but it’s hard to justify when your company supplies a phone for you. But at this point I can honestly say looking at the cost/convenience factor I would not have one if not for my company.

By: MBAbriefs

MBAbriefs — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:06:12 +0000

You’re right, we can talk ourselves into justifying just about anything, a new car, bigger house, better clothes, etc. If we scrutinized our discretionary expenses at home like we would at work we’d have a lot more month left over at the end of our month

I find it hard to believe anyone can honestly say their iPhone is paying for itself. I bought a Palm Treo smartphone refurbished a year after it came out on the market and I don’t have any buyer’s remorse, and since the Palm OS has tons of free and cheap apps I think it’s more than paid for itself. I dropped the internet service from my wireless plan because I didn’t feel I could justify the expense, although it was useful for a while. When the price comes down and there are more geotagging applications I might talk myself into adding internet back on my plan, but when I really considered what I getting for the extra $20 bucks a month IT JUST WASN’T WORTH IT.

As far as mobile blogging goes I would be afraid the formatting would look awful and it would take me four times as long to make a post. I’ve also heard a lot of iPhone users are dissatisfied with the iPhone as a phone; apparently their great at everything except communicating (???).

I appreciate your level-headed view and hope your readers take this isn’t to consideration when their shopping for their next phone (or other discretionary expense).
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