AT&T won’t reveal the much ballyhooed iPhone data plans until June 29, the date of the phone’s launch. How nice of them. Here’s a choice quote from an AT&T senior vice president:
Regardless of which device you’re using today, you pay us a certain amount for (voice) minutes, and you also pay us for data units,” he says. “That is also true on the iPhone.
Translation: AT&T will gouge you, hard. Thank God for that built-in Wi-Fi.
AT&T girds for iPhone launch on June 29 [USA Today via AppleInsider]
This sucks.
What is the problem with revealing actual details on pricing/contracts now? It’s not a secret device anymore, and there are people like me who would actually base their buying decision on the kind of plans that are being offered with it.
Also, this is not like the Xbox360 or PS3 launch (or Wii for that matter), where it’s pretty clear what you are getting at the point you are lined up for purchase. I don’t want to stand in line at the AT&T store at 6pm and then hear that the data plan will cost me $99 per month.
What’s next? New cars will be announced but people won’t actually know what kind of engine or interior it has until they sign the check?
There is a line between creating unnecessary hype around a product and being plain ridiculous.
Relying on WiFi would be great if a data plan wasn’t REQUIRED, but as it stands you’re going to have to shell out the bucks whether you want a data plan or not. Way uncool.
and 1 year later reading the 2 above posters, I bet they BOTH have iphones, and I bet they BOTH think the data plan is reasonable at 29.99 a month.
so funny how crazy people act.