When do UK mobile providers change their prices on newer phone models?

July 23, 2009 4:08 AM

When could I expect contract price for the new iPhone and HTC magic to come down (UK)?

It's time to renew and upgrade (I'm on Vodafone) and I'm torn between a new iPhone and the HTC Magic. But they're both fairly new, and the minimum monthly charge (or monthly+ initial cost) is outside my range (I'm not a heavy phone user).

Presumably this will change: Vodafone will make the HTC available in progressively lower bands, and a few reviewers have said the prices for the new iPhone are surprisingly high and should come down fairly soon. But can one predict when either of these things would happen?

(I know as a customer considering leaving Voda, I can negotiate a better arrangement than what's on offer to the public or initially offered to me personally. But I hate having to play that game and don't want to, say, spend the time & effort doing it now only to have the same deal that's offered to everyone 4 weeks later. Especially if "everybody knows providers restructure their prices on the 1st of September" or something like that. That's the kind of answer I'm looking for.)

Bonus cookie to anyone that can accurately predict when Voda will have the HTC Magic in black.

posted by K.P. to shopping (2 comments total)

You can get the 16 gig iPhone for 87 quid on a 2 year contract that is what I did and it was affordable. Thirty five quid a month tariff including unlimited Internet which is unlikely to be available on the Magic, plus this is a spectacular device. I am typing on it just now!
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:21 AM on July 23

Well, with the iPhone, the tariffs IIRC don't tend to come down through the life of that model, until something better comes out.

Have you considered Pay As You Go? I did the sums on my monthly usage on my old contract, and I was barely using the calls and texts allowance. Plus, you get a year free all-you-can-eat data when you buy a pay and go phone, and it's tenner a month after that. It may be that next year I switch it to one of their minimal tariffs rather than pay solely for internet, but I'd say I'm averaging a £30 topup every five weeks or so. I've also got a 'Favourite Places' thing that means that any calls from a particular postcode to landlines are free, so I can call from my work to home for nowt most of the time.

I bought the 32Gb phone for £538, rationalising that it would be my camera, phone and music player (as well as increasingly my main internet device and eBook reader) so buying it outright would probably ultimately save me a heap of cash.

So far I'm delighted with it, no monthly bills, I can cut down on usage if money's a bit tight and I've got the wireless data I want. I intend to keep this phone until it falls to bits (I'm hoping at least four or five years), so it's a good investment for me. Plus the apps make it a never ending Wunderkabinet of distractions.
posted by Happy Dave at 6:17 AM on July 23