Free Runner price vs iphone 3G price

[Sander Hoentjen]

On Tue, 2008-06-10 at 18:08 -0700, ian douglas wrote:
> Robert Taylor wrote:
> 
> > If you want to compare the total cost, compare the total cost of buying 
> > the new iphone UNLOCKED at retail cost (you can't) plus the data package 
> > and THEN we can talk.
> 
> But the consumer isn't asked to pay the full unlocked price of the 
> iPhone. Just because AT&T subsidizes the phone by lessening the profit 
> they make on the $100/month you'll pay them for using their service, the 
> consumer isn't paying "more" for the phone since they'd still have to 
> pay for the same voice/data service to use a Freerunner. It just means 
> AT&T makes more profit on the voice/data plan because they haven't 
> subsidized anything.
> 
> And you still haven't followed up with how you calculated the iPhone to 
> cost 'twice' as much as the Freerunner.
> 
I took the following approach (I am in The Netherlands):
compare the price difference for a 24month contract with or without an
iPhone (16GB) (Yes this is not the new one, but i suspect it will not
differ too much).

Price for 24 mo with iPhone: 719,- eur
with HTC Touch Diamond (just for comparison): 541,-
without phone: 163,10 eur