So T-Mobile came out with their new plans yesterday. Apparently the rumors of a a $60 everything plan were false. The cheapest everything plan is $80. But there is a catch. T-Mobile’s new “Even More Plus^sm” plan offers unlimited everything for $80, however it is without contract.

No contract? Sounds good, right? I agree, it is good. However no contract also means no phone subsidies. So that myTouch which “retails” for $500? Yeah, they want you to pay the full five for it. Now that might seem like a lot (because it is!), but there are three benefits from this pricing scheme:

1. Pricing – No really. Do the math. The other carriers offer an unlimited everything for $100/mth with a 2 year contract. That’s $2400 for the service plus $150 for a subsidized myTouch. Total: $2550. On the new plan: ($80 x 24 month) + ($500 myTouch) = $2420. That’s a savings of $130. Now I know that’s not much, but the key here isn’t that you’re neccessarily saving a bunch of money, the key is that you are saving money while achieving the other benefits!

2. Capitalism – OK so this won’t happen overnight, but let’s assume that T-Mobile is successful and their success forces the other 3 major carriers to do the same. Let’s assume that we will finally see a telecom industry that is truly divorced from the phone manufacturing industry. What happens then?

   Well first of all, without inflated subsidies phone manufacturers will be forced to sell phones for what people will actually be willing to pay for them. Right now the true costs are hidden from us. Will the myTouch be $500 when it comes out? Yeah, it sure will. But will it stay $500 for long? Nope, it will be priced like all other mass-market, hi-tech consumer products. High initial prices which then quickly decline.

3. Freedom – With price plans ranging from $30/month to $80/month you now have quite a few options. More importantly, with no contract to lock you in, you can move to a different plan based on your needs! Do more calling during the holidays? Bump up to the unlimited minutes plan, then in January drop back down. Simple, huh?

   To make it even better, T-Mobile will alert if you if you’re getting close to using up your minutes (assuming you’re not on an unlimited minute plan) and you can then either slow your usage or simply bump up to the next plan. Control: it’s yours again.

4. Freedom + Capitalism = Freedom² – Now imagine if the other carriers did follow suit. What would that mean for phone manufacturers? Well, without carriers demanding “exclusive” phones they wouldn’t have to make four version of each phone, each with just enough of a change to warrant a new name. Phone manufacturers would have a financial incentive to limit there model count. Economies of scale would encourage them to make a single phone that worked for any carrier. Imagine that! Imagine taking your phone from Sprint and going to AT&T without being required to sacrifice two goats to the gods of telecom.

   I know, I know, right now that concept is so foreign to you that you’re reading these words with the same level of skepticism as if I had just said I walked on water on the way home today. However, my brothers and sisters, if you just allow yourself to believe! To believe that we could be free! That our sons and daughters could be free! If we allow ourselves, for just a moment, to believe… then maybe, just maybe, one day we will indeed be free!

So the new pricing scheme is interesting, and an overall positive change. However it didn’t pull the rug out of the current pricing models the way $60/month would have done. That’s a disappointment as much for myself as for T-Mobile. I’m a big enough fan of T-Mobile that I had hoped to see them undercut the shit out of everyone else and really push themselves up in the industry.

So back to my story…

I had called T-Mobile (several times) yesterday to get pricing information for the plans, and the phones, and various options. The Cliq, it turns out, retails for $400. This is $100 cheaper than the $500 myTouch, I thought that was interesting.

However, as it turns out, and for all of my cheerleading above, in my particular case there is not a benefit for jumping on these new plans. While $80/month is $20/month cheaper than their old plan, I was already on a “special” customer loyalty plan that got me unlimited minutes for cheap. Once everything was calulated out, the new pricing plan actually costs me more than if I just sign a new 2-year contract and get the phone at a discount.

Now the interesting thing is that it’s almost exactly $200 more expensive. It just so happens that $200 is the exact amount that T-Mobile charges if you break your contract. So really, at worst case I end up right where I would’ve if I had just purchased the Cliq and full retail.

So that’s that! The Cliq is in the mail and soon I’ll have a new toy and blog topic.

Yay!

You know, I try to balance out my consumerism with some minimalism. But some days the scales are just smashed to bits. Today is one of those days.

First I find out that the Motorola Cliq, a new Android-phone, has started selling today. Not pre-sales, actually shipping according to engadget!

Next I call up the T-Mobile store in downtown Portland and ask if they’ve got a working unit. They say yes! Minutes later I’m double-stepping my ass to their store.

Now the Cliq is similar to the myTouch I talked about yesterday, with just a few subtle differences. The one that really catches my attention is the headphone jack. The myTouch doesn’t have one. If you want to use standard headphones you must use an adapter to go from USB to a standard 3.5 mm audio jack. This, in my opinion, is lame as hell. Lame! Now I was willing to accept it when there wasn’t any real other option, but the Cliq isn’t coming out… it’s out!

The Cliq also has a tactile keyboard, but I’ve decided to give the touchscreen keyboard a try. The physical keyboard on my (hated) BlackBerry has degraded at an appallingly fast rate. I can see why virtual keyboards may in fact be the future. The other nice this is the 5 megapixel camera. Maybe a cellphone camera will actually be somewhat usable, but I’m not keeping my hopes up for that one.

So if the Cliq is out now, why all the ruckus about Sunday? Well, I’ll tell you.

There’s been a rumor that T-Mobile is about to release a new pricing structure. Under the new pricing there will be an unlimited everything plan for $60/month! Wait wait, let me say this again. If rumors are true T-mobile will offer unlimited minutes, text, and data for $60/month! So here I am at the store getting all giddy at the prospect of a shiny, new toy. That’s when I ask the T-Mobile employee if she knows anything about new pricing plans coming out. She’s smiled for just a fraction of a second and then said “We don’t have information to share with public as of now.”

“Can you at least give me a date?” I asked.

“This Sunday,” she said.

This Sunday!! So I can upgrade my phone, get more service, and pay LESS every damn month! I’m so on that. Unfortunately if I buy a Cliq now (thereby extending the 11 months left on my contract to a full 24) and try to change my plan again on Sunday they’ll charge me a fee. So I’ve gotta wait until Sunday to do the whole shebang. I just hope the $200 price tag for the Cliq will be available to me with 11 months still left on my contract. Shiny toy = happy Kane!

Hold on Cliqy, Daddy’s coming!

Hmm. Either that fish has a driver’s license, or I’m underwater.

Inspector Gadget

As my beloved palm-powered Clie approached the twilight of it’s life I began looking for a replacement. After a bit of research I chose BlackBerry. Within days my love of my clie was replaced by my hatred for everything BlackBerry. Now, two years later, I still hate the BB.

Since returning to school I’ve been in greater need of a good organization system. With homeworks, exams, and whatnot to juggle I need a comprehensive system that will work for all of my needs. More and more I’ve been looking at upgrading to a new smart phone. There are five major players in the smart-phone arena. The first is BlackBerry: that’s out. The next would be a Windows Mobile device: next!

Then there is the ever-popular iPhone. I hate ipods with a passion, I think they’re an inferior product for an inflated price. I also look with immense disdain one those who own ipods. That hatred has carried over to the iphone. Unfortunately, unlike the ipod, I have to concede that the iphone is a really well made product. However the iphone still have several limitations that are artificially put in place to keep iphone users in check. On top of this iphone is exclusive to AT&T whom I have no love for whatsoever. An iphone AT&T combo is not going to make it on my list.

The leaves two platforms, each with it’s own problems. An Android phone or the Palm Pre. My problem with Android is that it is way too heavily tied in to Google (the creator of Android). Other than that, it’s an awesome platform.

The Palm Pre is a sweet little phone and I used to be a big, big fan of Palm back in the Palm OS days. Unfortunately the folks at Palm decided to sign an exclusive deal with Sprint for the first release of their webOS-powered phone. This bothers me on two levels. The first problem is purely anecdotal. I used to be a Sprint user and they taught me how to hate them with great passion. Sprint’s customer service ranged from comically inept to infuriatingly idiotic. I hate Sprint. I hope they go out of business. The second problem is my extreme annoyance with this whole “exclusive contract” bullshit. American telecom companies fuck the shit out of us every way they can and we sit with our thumbs up our asses letting it happen. Exclusive contracts are just another way in which we allow mega-corporations to use our airspace to maximize profits while providing as little service as they possibly can. Fuck. Them.

So after some thought I’ve decided an Android phone will be my next step. The specific phone I’m looking at now is the myTouch. I’ve been going back & forth for the past few weeks. I’ve been trying to convince myself it’s worth the extra monthly cost. There are two little bonuses that are helping me with the task. First of all, Oregon doesn’t have a sales tax. My monthly bill back in Texas included a $5 sales tax fee. Switching my account will shave the cost. Additionally as a PSU student I would get 15% off of the data plan, another $5 savings. Here’s how the two plans compare:

So upgrading to a fancy new phone with unlimited everything would only cost me $14.75 extra per month! Now normally I hate this sort of logic as it’s just a way to excuse our excessive spending. But this time I’ll ignore it because I really want this phone!

I’m still not sure though. To make matters worse, my friend Dave recently got one and has been raving about it. So now add gadget-envy to my list of reasons to get it. –sigh–

Now on top of this… there is a rumor that T-Mobile will be dropping an unlimited everything plan for $60 a month! That would make me ecstatic. So I tell myself that I should do this now, and if they do indeed come out with a super $60 plan then I’ll migrate to that and get an even better deal.

Haha… I started writing this post to tell you about my indecision of whether or not I should spend the money on a myTouch. By the time I’ve finished writing it though I’ve gotten myself all excited about it again. Why fight it, I’m a gadget whore and it’s just a matter of time.