Before I go too far, I should say that I’ve had a smartphone, specifically a Palm Treo, since they came out. In 7 years of Palm Treo ownership, it probably saved me $300 worth in conveniences each year. Considering the plan cost me $30-40 a month it wasn’t a bad investment, but it’s not a great savings. I since plunked down $200 for a Palm Pre and haven’t regretted it at all. In fact, I was even more proud of the decision when I saw this PC World article that listed it as a $1200 savings over a iPhone in Total Cost of Ownership over two years. Soon, a cheaper sister phone, the Palm Pixi will be out and you’ll be able to save even more money.
I should mention that the $30-40 month plan isn’t available with the Palm Pre. I had to upgrade a new phone plan that was $70 a month. It doesn’t seem to make sense as I had unlimited data before. However, if I think of it from the perspective of Sprint, phones like the Palm Pre put more stress on their network, which require more upgrades, which requires more money.
The Palm Pre made me more than $160 in a single day. How? I was at a yard sale where I saw a pair of Air Jordan’s… brand new, never worn. I remember from a recent episode of Numbers that people collect vintage shoes. (Don’t act shocked that I’m nerdy enough to enjoy television shows about math.) Using my Palm Pre, I hopped on Ebay and saw that the same shoes recently sold for $200. So I didn’t hesitate to pick up the shoes for $20. We “only” got around $176 on Ebay for flipping them. The same day I saw a DVD of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, which I somehow thought might be out of print. A quick look on Wikipedia showed that it was indeed out of print. The subsequent look on Ebay showed it going for $15… well worth the $1 price tag. We had no trouble flipping it.
The other thing that I’ve found handy is the built-in GPS navigation that comes with the Palm Pre and Sprint’s new higher-priced plan. That saves me from buying the other GPS navigation that I was planning on (so my wife and I don’t have to share one). The navigation has saved me hours (yes, my sense of direction is that bad).
Overall, when you factor in the more expensive phone plan, I probably haven’t actually saved money or made money with my Palm Pre. The difficulty is that I have to continually find ways to save or make money each month to match the ongoing phone plan. There are only so many Air Jordans and Yellow Submarines to be found. At least it’s not becoming a big cost center for me.
i have always preferred the blackberry and the iphone the the palm pre. i think their aesthetics appeal more to me. BTW i didn’t think that one could use smartphones in such a resourceful manner
I like your logic and rationale except for this: The money-saving features that you use on your Pre (or on the i-Phone) can be obtained on other phones for far less. One example is my Windows mobile phone from LG, which includes touch-screen browsing and GPS. Cost me $50 new. There may be other features that you like better about your phone, but those aren’t mentioned in your post.
I wouldn’t call your $50 price far less than the $79 for a Pre. And an iPhone can be had for $99 now. These are one time costs and really pale in comparison to the network. That’s why I linked to the PC World article.
I haven’t use the Windows mobile phone from LG, but I know the Treo 700P had touch-screen browsing as well. It’s processor was too slow to use Ebay effectively. It would take 2 minutes to render a page with any kind of images even on a 3G network. The Pre on the same 3G network can do it in about 5-6 seconds.
I’m trying to inconspicuous and quick here and looking up the completed sales on Ebay is about 5 screen away (due to needing to login as well).
I have a friend who, when he goes to a Chinese buffet that has more unusual choices, will take pictures of dishes he doesn’t know and emails them to me so I can identify them for him.
There are LOTS of uses for an iPhone.
We have the LG Windows Mobile phone — we got it free with our cell phone plan. Man, Windows is bad enough on computer — on a cellphone, it’s terrible. It’s now sitting on a shelf unused.
$176 – $20 = $156 (Jordans)
$15 – $1 = $14 (Beatles)
Unless I’m missing something – it looks to me like you made $156 + $14 = $170
Proves that I’m way past just watching Numbers :)
Yes you are. I ‘m not sure the final price we got on the Beatles, so I just went with the “more than $160” number.
No Android love? ;) I just got the Android Hero also on the sprint network. It was a work perk, so the bill doesnt come to me which is even better but the thing has a barcode scanner, so I can scan barcodes while shopping and compare with online prices, just another way it saves money :) great post
Nah, no love for Android. I’ve never seen an Android in the real world, so I couldn’t comment on if it’s any good.