Prepaid or postpaid?: The fight for your cell phone dollars (Smartphones Unlocked)

No-contract carriers can slice your smartphone bill over the course of two years. But you may still opt for a pricier contract instead. By definition, the no-contract carrier model is designed to save you money over a two-year contract agreement, the latter of which reigns supreme here in the U.S. The question is: How much do you really gain by going prepaid, and what do you lose from the subscriber experience? Without a doubt, no-contract carriers like MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Cricket Wireless can dramatically cut your monthly cell phone bill, but there are trade-offs. I'm not going to dive into every carrier's pricing structure and phone offerings, so for the sake of comparison, I'm going to break down the cost of ownership over a two-year span for two carriers: Verizon, which has the most U.S. subscribers, and MetroPCS, the country's largest prepaid network. Samsung's Galaxy S3 makes a good model device thanks to its ubiquity across seven carriers; the 16GB version has a $199.99 base price for most contract providers. Now, that $200 charge isn't the phone's true cost; it's the price that Verizon and the rest subsidize so you pay less up-front than a MetroPCS customer, who will pay the full $500. The trade-off for a "cheaper" Verizon phone is committing to two years of data fees no matter what, and getting slapped with a multiple-hundred-dollar termination fee if you try to leave early. In addition, Verizon and others add an activation fee for new lines of service. If you're a new cell phone customer, or switching from another carrier, chances are good that you'll be tacking a nominal fee onto the transaction, and that adds to the phone's overall cost.

Verizon Wireless -- two-year contract
Samsung Galaxy S3 cost	$200
Activation fee (one-time)	$35
Monthly access rate	$40
Monthly rate (4GB data)	$70
Access fee, 24 months	$960
Data fee, 24 months	$1,680
Two-year total, excluding taxes	$2,915

MetroPCS -- No contract carrier
Samsung Galaxy S3 cost	$500
Activation fee	$0
Monthly rate (Unlimited 4G LTE)	$55
Data fee, 24 months	$1,320
Two-year total, excluding taxes	$1,820

Assuming you use Verizon's new pooled Share Everything data plan, you'll have to pay a monthly access fee for any device, on top of the monthly bundle for unlimited talk, text, and a portion of 4G LTE data. I chose 4GB of monthly data, but Verizon also offers plans for as low as 1GB per month to as high as 10GB per month.

Over two years, you'll pay almost $3,000 for the Galaxy S3 on Verizon, assuming you're activating a new line of service.

With MetroPCS, however, you skip the activation fee, and the $55 unlimited monthly rate gets you all the LTE data you can eat, on top of limitless calls and texts. MetroPCS' LTE plans range from $40 to $70 per month, depending on add-on services. For instance, the $70 plan gets you on-demand video and unlimited Rhapsody Music.

A high-powered phone like the Galaxy S3 brings powerful software and hardware features to traditionally more humble networks.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

In this scenario, MetroPCS saves you $1,095 over the course of two years of ownership for that high-end Galaxy S3. The math gets a little trickier when you factor in lines of service for multiple family members. Verizon and AT&T have their pooled data plans, but MetroPCS does drop rate plans by $5 a plan when you have two-to-five lines of service under a single name. This is MetroPCS' small concession for families and groups.

How low can you go?
What happens if you're trying to get the least expensive phone you can, period? Once again, a prepaid carrier may offer you the cost advantage on the lower end of the scale, too.

Although most known as a post-paid carrier, Verizon also has a prepaid branch that gives you unlimited talk, text, and Web. (Check and you'll find that each national carrier has some sort of prepaid option. In Verizon's case, there are two choices, since you can also buy phones at full retail cost and opt for a month-to-month contract.)

For the next scenario, I wanted to compare the most rock-bottom price you can get with Verizon and MetroPCS. Verizon's least expensive handset is the $50 Samsung Gusto 2 flip phone, which, though simple, has all the basics for making calls and texts.

Verizon Wireless -- Cheapest prepaid
Samsung Gusto 2	$50
Monthly fee (talk, text, Web)	$50
Data fee, 24 months	$1,200
Two-year total, excluding taxes	$1,250

MetroPCS -- No contract -- Cheapest
Huawei Verge, Kyocera Presto	$50
Monthly fee (talk, text, Web)	$40
Data fee, 24 months	$960
Two-year total, excluding taxes	$1,010

Verizon charges $50 for unlimited talk, text, and Web, though you won't use much Web on a phone like the Gusto 2, and that saves Verizon money in the end. The $1,250 total for two years of ownership is pretty low.

I likewise searched MetroPCS' Web site for its least expensive offering. At the time of writing, the Kyocera Presto and Huawei Verge each cost $50.

Yet its cheapest 3G rate squeaks in at $40 per month, just south of Verizon's offering. The difference between the two isn't very vast, but there's a lot you can do with the $240 you'll have left at the end of two years with MetroPCS.

A third option: MVNOs
Carriers with storefronts aren't the only options. You can also find great deals with MVNOs, Mobile Virtual Network Operators. MVNOs are services that resell other operators' spectrum, and prices go as low as $30 per month without a contract. TracFone is the largest, and owns StraightTalk, a Wal-Mart exclusive that resells AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

(Credit: CNET)

Ting and Credo Mobile ride Sprint's network, as do Sprint's own prepaid Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile brands. PureTalk sells AT&T; Net 10 rides AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint; and Simple Mobile resells T-Mobile service.

Getting the phone you want
As with the handsets themselves, no carrier offers a one-size-fits-all solution. No-contract providers are simpler and less invasive: there's no service agreement and no credit check. You can often pay in cash at a retail store, so a credit card isn't required. Since there's no contract, there's also no fee for stopping service sporadically or switching providers any time you want.

Selection is one big drawback; you can't always be as choosy about what you get. Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T's prepaid services are usually limited to flip phones and other simple devices. Quality midrange Android phones can easily cost $300 without a contract, but the features will often pale in comparison to the most coveted smartphones on the market.

The good news is that the more major prepaid carriers are snagging popular smartphones like the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3, but these will come at the full retail price, which is a larger sum up-front.

Cricket Wireless snagged the iPhone 5 just a week after the major carriers began selling Apple's flagship phone.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

It's all about the network
When you're considering which carrier to pick, you should always think about the network speeds and services you can expect. MetroPCS, for instance, works best in urban centers, so if you travel a lot to the country, you may find your call quality and ability to stream data heavily compromised.

Not every network is created equally, either. MetroPCS' 4G LTE data is downright slow compared with Verizon's top-notch LTE, but it's still speedier than another carrier's 3G network. Still, not everyone requires the absolute fastest downloads.

All the extras
Post-paid national carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon can also afford to offer you greater support when it comes to in-store attention and customer service, in addition to intangibles like a more alluring brand appeal.

Cellular Factory Wholesale

A 4.8-inch iPhone? Don't count on it.

ITC decides to review Apple complaint against Samsung

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) decided yesterday to review a ruling made by an administrative law judge in the ongoing patent-infringement saga between Apple and Samsung.

Judge Thomas Pender in October ruled that Samsung had violated one of Apple's iPhone design patents, as well as three software feature patents, in some of its mobile products. Two other patents brought before the judge by Apple were found to have not been violated by Samsung.

In a memo published yesterday (PDF), the ITC announced that it will review the ruling passed down by Judge Pender. The organization said that … Read more

Android challenges the iPhone in every category | Apple - CNET News

via http://www.cnet.com/profile/PeterYared/

For the past month, I have been using an HTC Droid DNA, which has similar specs to the rumored upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4. People approach me at grocery stores, airports, coffee shops, even on the street and ask me about the phone. The device is indeed quite compelling, even from a distance.

The HTC DNA has an amazingly bright 1080p HD display with a higher resolution than Apple's iPhone 5 Retina display. The operating system is modern with dynamic widgets that tell you at a glance what's going on. The apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and such are equivalent to those available to iOS, and Google Apps such as Google Now, voice recognition, and Google Maps are sleek and modern. This is hands down a better device than the iPhone 5, and people seem to intuitively recognize it.

What phone would I recommend for my mom? An iPhone. It's safe, predictable, and uniform. What would I recommend for anyone under 40? Definitely one of the new breeds of Android phones. Android might still be a bit quirkier than an iPhone, but it's definitely not confusing for people who interact daily with a variety of advanced technology. Samsung really nailed it in its commercial where a young woman is waiting in line for a new iPhone and it turns out she is holding the spot for her parents.

The new breed of Android devices exceed the iPhone 5 in every category -- hardware, operating system, and apps.

The spec is alive and well -- and killing Apple
Hardware from Samsung, HTC, LG, and others has now caught up and eclipsed Apple's devices. Smartphones don't really have that many specs to evaluate, and each of the specs actually means something tangible to an average consumer. After five years of advanced smartphones, specs like screen size, screen density, screen brightness, camera speed, camera megapixels, physical dimensions, physical weight, amount of memory, and battery life are easily understandable and relevant to even the average smartphone consumer. Even specs like the number of processor cores and speed that are typically not easy to understand are easily understood when framed as "faster than the iPhone 5."

Conversely, the spec is definitely irrelevant when purchasing Apple products. There are so few products to choose from that decision making is essentially boiled down to a Goldilocks-style small/medium/large decision mainly driven by cost rather than actual features. While this is great for my mom and MG Siegler, the lack of spec-based decision making is not necessarily a good thing in a world where consumers actually understand each of the specs and would like to choose how to balance them out relative to cost. Apple has been a follower on many specs, particularly in terms of form factors, trailing the market in both 4-inch phones and 7-inch tablets.

iPhones are definitely gorgeous devices, but they are relatively uniform and monotone. Aluminum is definitely great. I was surprised by how many women commented on the red accents on the HTC DNA, which are part of the DNA's crossbranding with Beats Audio. People like colors and variety, and they don't necessarily like having to completely cover a phone's shell and make it bulkier in order to express themselves.

Let's not forget that all of those Samsung Galaxy phones you see cost the same as an iPhone -- their owners are not bargain shoppers; they are spec and style shoppers.

The screen should actually show you something!
As mobile app developer Ralf Nottman recently noted, the new generation of Android 4 Jelly Bean is a fundamentally better operating system than iOS -- better rendering, better cross-app sharing, better app/OS integration, and more polished.

But the real standout for Android is the customizability of the display. Rather than iOS static icons with embedded notifications, with Android, apps are front and center, displaying the time in different time zones, the weather, appointments, emails, texts, whatever you want in numerous themes that can completely reinvent the user interface.

Windows Phone 8, the dark horse in this race, is actually even more integrated, with a unified messaging interface that consolidates emails, texts, and Facebook messages into a single thread, and a consistent tile interface with which apps can display information on the home screens.

The operating system is not as important as the apps, and this is where Android is beginning to shine.

The cloud behind the app is more important than the app 
In a world where the hardware and operating system have become commoditized, the apps are the differentiator, and more and more, the apps are a viewport into a cloud service driven by machine learning.

The vast majority of Internet users rely on Google Search, Maps, YouTube, Mail, and such, and spend more time in those apps than in the mobile operating system itself. As people are beginning to note, Google's apps are way better than Apple's. What good is Siri if it thinks "Hurricane Sandy" is a hockey team, when Google knows what's actually going on? Google Now is adding ambient awareness to Android devices, letting people know what's going on around them and what they need to do in a very personal way, with features like a notice that you need to leave for your next meeting because there is now traffic en route.

Perhaps, as is rumored off and on, Apple will start snapping up cloud services such as Waze.However, it is hard to buy and integrate a new type of product category into a large company that doesn't have it in its DNA. Competing with Google, an entrenched, dominant player in machine intelligence that recently added Ray Kurzweil to its roster is going to be a challenging affair. Microsoft actually had a better track record of delivering large-scale cloud services, such as mail, mapping, and storage, than Apple.

Beyond Google's apps, the reality of the app market is that all of the applications that matter are now on Android, and it actually will soon have more apps than iOS. Dan Lyons of ReadWrite is lambasting the Silicon Valley tech press for living in an iPhone echo chamber, and he does have a point. Pundits are lauding Google Maps features on their iPhones that have been available on Android devices for literally years. Bloggers breathlessly reveal new Facebook iPhone app features such as "Find Friends Nearby" that had been available for over a month on Android.

The feedback loop of the echo chamber is that developers initially develop apps on iOS, much like the recently popular Cinemagram. However, developers like Nottman like cool devices, and are starting to shift over to Android. In addition, developers are feeling limited by iOS user interface patterns and its skeuomorphic apps and are branching out. Like the Mac OS of the early '90s, the consistent UI across applications will likely splinter.

The numbers speak for themselves. Android has a 75 percent smartphone worldwide market share, as evidenced by the hordes of Samsung devices in use throughout Europe and Asia. While Apple is regaining market share in the U.S. with the iPhone 5, it is about to face an onslaught of 5-inch Android phones with specs that far exceed the iPhone 5's. Wall Street clearly sees a shift coming, and has hammered Apple's stock price over the past quarter.

The average consumer has moved past the days of pious, scruffy haired, unshaven, thick glasses-wearing dudes lecturing us on how Apple is so cool. Perhaps soon Silicon Valley will catch up. When you see someone in a cafe with a MacBook Air, iPad, and iPhone on the table in front of them, is "Think Different" really what comes to mind?

Android challenges the iPhone in every category | Apple - CNET News

CNET: iOS, Android, and Web traffic: Same old, same old

iOS, Android, and Web traffic: Same old, same old: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57556846-94/ios-android-and-web-traffic-same-old-same-old/?tag=mobile_social

Apple Introduces iPhone 5

Thinnest, Lightest iPhone Ever Features All-New Aluminum Design, Stunning 4-Inch Retina Display, A6 Chip & Ultrafast Wireless

SAN FRANCISCO—September 12, 2012—Apple® today announced iPhone® 5, the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, completely redesigned to feature a stunning new 4-inch Retina™ display; an Apple-designed A6 chip for blazing fast performance; and ultrafast wireless technology*—all while delivering even better battery life.** iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features including: the all new Maps app with Apple-designed cartography and turn-by-turn navigation; Facebook integration; Passbook® organization; and even more Siri® features and languages.

“iPhone 5 is the most beautiful consumer device that we’ve ever created,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “We’ve packed an amazing amount of innovation and advanced technology into a thin and light, jewel-like device with a stunning 4-inch Retina display, blazing fast A6 chip, ultrafast wireless, even longer battery life; and we think customers are going to love it.”

iPhone 5 is the thinnest smartphone in the world, with an all-new 7.6 mm anodized aluminum body that is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than iPhone 4S. Designed with an unprecedented level of precision, iPhone 5 combines an anodized aluminum body with diamond cut chamfered edges and glass inlays for a truly incredible fit and finish.

The new 4-inch Retina display on iPhone 5 delivers even more pixels than iPhone 4S, making the already incredible Retina display even better. By making the screen taller, not wider, iPhone 5 is just as easy to use with one hand so you can tap, type and scroll the same way you always have, while enjoying even more of your content including amazing apps optimized for the larger Retina display, widescreen HD video, a full five days of your Calendar and more of every web page.

iPhone 5 supports ultrafast wireless standards including LTE and DC-HSDPA, so you can browse, download and stream content even faster. To support the latest LTE technology, Apple has pioneered a unique single-radio LTE solution that provides blazing fast speeds while fitting perfectly into the new remarkably thin design. iPhone 5 features dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi support for a wireless experience up to 150 Mbps.***

The all-new A6 chip was designed by Apple to maximize performance and power efficiency to support all the incredible new features in iPhone 5, including the stunning new 4-inch Retina display—all while delivering even better battery life. With up to twice the CPU and graphics performance, almost everything you do on iPhone 5 is blazing fast for launching apps, loading web pages and downloading email attachments.

The 8 megapixel iSight® camera is the most popular camera in the world and with iPhone 5, it’s even better. The new camera is completely redesigned with incredible optical performance, yet amazingly it’s 25 percent smaller than the camera in iPhone 4S. The new iSight camera in iPhone 5 features a sapphire crystal lens cover that is thinner and more durable than standard glass with the ability to provide crystal clear images. The new panorama feature lets you capture jaw-dropping panorama images of up to 28 megapixels by simply moving the camera across a scene in one smooth motion. New video features include improved stabilization, video face detection for up to 10 faces and the ability to take still photos as you record. A new FaceTime® HD front facing camera makes FaceTime calls incredibly clear and can also be used for self portraits and recording 720p HD video. iPhone 5 also allows you to share photos with friends and family using iCloud’s Shared Photo Streams.

iPhone 5 features the new Lightning™ connector that is smaller, smarter and more durable than the previous connector. The all-digital Lightning connector features an adaptive interface that uses only the signals that each accessory requires, and it’s reversible so you can instantly connect to your accessories. The Lightning-to-30-pin Adapter is also available to connect iPhone 5 to legacy 30-pin accessories.****

iPhone 5 introduces new enhanced audio features including a new beam-forming, directional microphone system for higher quality sound, while background noise fades away with new noise canceling technology. iPhone 5 now includes support for cellular wideband audio for crisper word clarity and more natural sounding speech. Wideband audio will be supported by over 20 carriers worldwide at launch. iPhone 5 comes with the new Apple EarPods™ featuring a breakthrough design for a more natural fit and increased durability, and an incredible acoustic quality typically reserved for higher-end earphones.

iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new user features including: an all new Maps app with Apple-designed cartography, turn-by-turn navigation and an amazing new Flyover™ view; Facebook integration for Contacts and Calendar, with the ability to post directly from Notification Center; Passbook, the simplest way to get all your passes in one place; new Siri features, including support for more languages, easy access to sports scores, restaurant recommendations and movie listings;***** Siri and Facebook-enabled apps like Photos, Safari® and Maps; and Shared Photo Streams via iCloud®.

Pricing & Availability
iPhone 5 comes in either white & silver or black & slate, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model. iPhone 5 will be available from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 5 will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on Friday, September 21, and customers can pre-order their iPhone 5 beginning Friday, September 14. iPhone 4S will also be available for just $99 (US) and iPhone 4 will be available for free with a two-year contract.****** iOS 6 software will be available on Wednesday, September 19 as a free software update.

iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

* LTE is available through select carriers. Network speeds are dependent on carrier networks, check with your carrier for details.
** Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
*** Based on theoretical speeds, actual speeds may vary.
**** Sold separately.
***** Not all features are supported in all countries.
****** Availability varies by carrier.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Apple's next-generation iPhone liveblog! -- Engadget

Apple's next-generation iPhone liveblog! -- Engadget

Apple Asks Judge to Block Sales of 8 Samsung Devices

In the wake of its victory against Samsung, Apple has petitioned a U.S. court to block the sale of eight Samsung devices.

In its filing with the court, Apple cited seven patent violations as its reason for requestion the eight Samsung devices be blocked from sale in the United States.

Specically, Apple targeted seven Galaxy devices - Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Galaxy Prevail - as well as the Droid Charge.

Those eight devices are not insignificant. According to documents provided to the court by Samsung, they accounted for $1.3 billion in sales for Samsung during the first half of 2012.

Apple was recently awarded $1.05 billion in damages when a jury decided that Samsung had "wilfully" copied Apple's iPad and iPhone. An injunction hearing is scheduled to take place on Sept. 20.

Industry analyst Jeff Kagan, says traditionally cases like the one between Apple and Samsung would result in the winner charging the loser a fee while the devices remain on the market. In this case, however, Kagan says Apple might not be so forgiving.

"There is nothing traditional about this case. I think Apple has it's eyes on Samsung's jugular," Kagan wrote in emailed comments.

Still, Kagan doesn't think this is the end of Samsung in any way.

"Either way this is just a short term problem for Samsung," he said. "I am sure they are busy, behind the scenes, developing their next replacement technology and will update their phones as soon as possible.

Since the jury's decision was announced, Samsung stock has plummeted, while Nokia, RIM and Apple have all seen considerable gains.

Apple Set to Unveil Next-Gen iOS

Apple is expected today to unveil iOS 6 , the company’s next iteration of its mobile operating system at its 5-day annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

“We have a great WWDC planned this year and can’t wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

Apple unveiled iOS 5 at last year’s event, and speculation has run rampant recently about what kinds of changes Apple will unveil this year. Reports of deep integration of Facebook and a new Apple maps product are tops on most lists of possibilities.

Ahead of today’s event, Google’s Executive Vice President of Android, Andy Rubin, tweeted last night that Google is currently activating 900,000 Android devices per day. Incidentally, Rubin also put an end to rumors that he might be leaving Google, tweeting, “No plans to leave Google. Oh, and just for meme completeness -- there are over 900,000 android devices activated each day :-)”

Apple will undoubtedly push back against Rubin’s claims during today’s opening keynote at WWDC. The company has a long history of running down its impressive stats, revealing everything from device activation numbers to total number of app downloads.

Apple’s late CEO, Steve Jobs, famously contended that Android’s numbers were inflated, because he said Google included upgrades in its activation numbers, while Apple only includes new activations.

As of the first quarter 2012, Android controlled 56.1 percent of the smartphone market by operating system, according to Gartner. Apple’s iOS followed in second place with 22.9 percent of the market, up from 16.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011.