My understanding is you sign a 2 year contract to get a free or reduced price on a phone. So if i'm paying the full price for an iPHONE why are they requiring a 2 year contract?

Also, the I-phone will not work without the data plan so you couldn't buy it and just use if as a phone and for texting.  

74.00 a month is outrageous.  The plan for Blackberries is 45.00.  That is 1080.00 over 3 years.

remember when "its your nickel" meant something.......

The AT&T BB plans also require voice plan on top of the $45 (see note 4 on their webpage).

I think I will hang on to my Nokia Net 10 prepaid cell phone for another year or so --maybe I'll get a flip phone-10 cents a minute for two months at $30.  Heck, as far as a so-called "Bluetooth" in my ear, we used to put a fountain pen cap on our ears to look cool back in the late 50s.....then we'd yak and confuse everyone.  

C'mon, really? The cost of ownership with ANY phone includes your voice/ data plan. The cheapest voice plan with AT&T is $39.99 a month for 450 minutes. The data plan on top of that for BlackBerry is $30 bucks for unlimited data (most BBs don't even use 3G). So that means the cost of the plan for a blackberry is almost identical to that for an iPhone - the voice plan + $30 for data, except the iPhone plan comes with text messages  as well.

A windows mobile Smartphone plan costs the same... so really your article should be "The real price of owning a Smartphone"

And Fred, if you want an iPhone without a data plan... you have missed the point of an iPhone and you should just buy an iPod, and a shitty cheap pre-paid nokia. The whole point is the data.

Actually, you can use the iPhone without the data plan.  I haven't had a data plan for over 8 months once I realized EVERYONE in the office buildings and homes around me had wifi.  All you do is call in and ask them: 1 to turn off the iPhone data package and 2, ask them to prohibit pay-per-use data on your phone. 3. turn on text messaging and VOILA! you have a WiFi enabled, text messaging phone with no visual voicemail but synched everything and cool features.

Enjoy

Actually 74.00 it is a good deal for voice, data and text. An equivalent plan with my carrier goes for about 89.99. 450 min, unlimited data and unlimited text. Once my contract is up, i am switching. Now that is 383.00 in savings over two years

Fred you math sucks. It comes out to $82.29 per month over 2 years. Not all that bad if you ask me. Depends on how many mins you get to talk.  I've had both the blackberry and Iphone and the Iphone is hands down the best phone out. And I HATED apple before I got it. Its an amazing piece of technology. And when its jailbroken its 100times better! Who could complain about 1000+ NES and SNES Games?!?!?!?!?! Not me!!!!!!!!

The price also includes "voice"...what phones started out as. Blackberry price you quoted is just for data, no voice. So are you also going to carry another device? Not cool, and actually more costly. Make sure you have insurance, because 2 devices on the waist have more tendancy to drop off into the toilet. I'm just sayin'. We may also comapre you to Urkel..but hey he was fun!