Get an iPhone for under 56p a day
Carphone Warehouse's cheapest-ever deal delivers an iPhone 4 handset for just £17 a month.
Apple's iPhone has been one of the most successful technology products ever sold.
Since launching the first iPhone in June 2007, Apple has seen smartphone sales soar. After five years, Apple had sold 250 million iPhone handsets, generating $150 billion in sales. Frankly, no other consumer product in history has enjoyed such staggering sales success -- and it's turned Apple into the world's leading high-tech brand.
'Free' handsets don't come cheap
Since mid-2007, Apple has launched six different iPhone versions. The latest, the sixth-generation iPhone 5, was unveiled in September 2012. Meanwhile, the first-generation iPhone is becoming something of a collector's item.
However, getting a shiny, new iPhone 5 on contract isn't cheap. To get a 'free' handset, you'll have to sign up to a lengthy and expensive tariff with a network provider. Typically this will involve paying, say, £35 a month for two years, a total of £840. This is beyond the budget of many folk, including teenagers, young adults, students and other groups of modest means.
Cheapest iPhone 4 deal ever
Then again, if you don't need all the features of the iPhone 5, but still want a superior smartphone, then Carphone Warehouse may be where to go. The high-street chain has launched what it describes as its 'cheapest-ever iPhone 4 deal'.
Designed to attract budget-conscious buyers and first-time smartphone owners, Carphone Warehouse's deal offers a brand-new, fourth-generation iPhone 4 8GB handset on contract for just £17 a month for two years. These are the two contracts linked to this deal:
|
Network operator |
Inclusive minutes |
Inclusive texts |
Data limit |
|
3 |
500 |
Unlimited |
250MB |
|
O2 |
300 |
Unlimited |
500MB |
For users who like to chat, the 3 deal offers 500 inclusive talk minutes, but a data download limit of 250MB. For those who prefer surfing the web, the O2 contract offers 500MB of data, but only 300 minutes of calls.
With both deals costing £17 a month for two years, the total contractual cost comes to £408. This is around half what you'd pay for a similar tariff with an iPhone 5 handset. Indeed, it works out at less than 56p a day, which is a bargain for a quality smartphone.
Is this a good deal?
Of course, it's much cheaper to get an iPhone 4 deal simply because you're buying a handset that was originally launched almost three years ago.
Even so, this mobile phone gives you a high-density 'Retina' display to browse the web, send and receive texts and email, use social-networking sites such as Facebook, shoot high-definition videos, take photos using a five-megapixel camera, play music and games, use GPS navigation and much, much more.
In addition, you can choose from well over 800,000 apps (many of which are free) available via Apple's App Store. At the end of your two-year contract, you'll own a handset based on a five-year-old design. Even so, this will still have some resale value, as it will always be worth something to someone.
A tempting tariff
This new price plan is available online and in-store. To me, it seems like a pretty sweet deal. You get a fairly high-end handset -- complete with the iOS 6 operating system and access to the App Store -- at an affordable price of just £204 a year.
Compare phone deals at Recombu
More on mobile phones:
Virgin Mobile VIP tariff offers "unlimited everything" from £26 a month
Say no to 0800, 0808, 0870: how to call them free from your mobile
The cheapest deals on the Samsung Galaxy S4
Mobile phone companies ordered to stop charging for 0800 numbers
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Comments
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I think electricblue's emphasis on "needs" is the critical perspective. I'm content on my £3.50 per month outlay covering PAYG and depreciation of initial purchase cost. Another few months and the outlay will have dropped to £2.80 per month so no great risk of financial stress arising from this commodity then.
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Electricblue must be an Apple basher. It is fine not to like a company for whatever reason, but to say the Apple Operating System is "counter intuitive" is plain rubbish. It is universally acknowledged by any reviewer that iOS is the most user friendly mobile OS there is. There may be other issues one doesn't like, like the walled garden approach/lack of hackability etc, but that is personal and doesn't make it "counter intuitive". Apple's success with iOS devices stems from the very usability of the devices, not fashion, coolness or whatever. Why would people buy them given the prices at the top end of the market if they were not so incredibly easy to use? (someone who uses Android and iOS and willing to try Windows mobile)
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@rpb: Brand new unlocked iPhone 4 for £240 (which equates to £10 per month over 2 years), unlimited calls, unlimited txt and 1Gb Internet SIM only for under £8 per month. So unlimited calls and a lot more Internet for less than £1 a month more and it was only a 12 month commitment. Oh, and I also have 100 minutes 08x numbers included. As I said, it wasn't a bad deal that Cliff found, just not the best. Its hard to believe the prices that some people pay - I have heard peole paying £25 per month or more for similar! People seem to get excited about the offer of a free phone (which obviously is a marketting con) or a free upgrade which is designed to keep customers paying the extortionate rates. Or there are the real money wasters who are sucked in to buy the latest phones (e.g. iPhone 5 or Samsung S4) and are robbed (I mean willingly give up) a whopping £40 to £50 for the same!!!
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30 May 2013