An iPad for under 200 quid*

Orange has announced how much it is prepared to subsidise the Apple iPad, and it pushes the entry-level fondle slab down below £200 with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. You'll have to agree to pay Orange £27 a month for the next couple of years, less a couple of quid if you're already indentured to Orange. So, including the £200 …

[Anonymous Coward]

Subsidy? What nonsense. More like Loan sharks.

This is never a subsidy, el reg. It is purely like a hire purchase at 20 to 30% ish plus APR for a product you want to buy without upfront costs. And no escape or returns halfway thru. (Unlike other items eg cars, Tvs etc which can be returned/surrendered or claimed back by the company for the unused portion of the deal time/defaults.)

Or a loan/installments scheme.

Loan sharks, anyone?

Paris , cos I dont mind a higher APR for being loaned/subsidised to me.

[Richard 120]

Less interested in the iPad than "the Rules"

For my records can anyone let me know what the figure is for "a single-spouse decision"?

I may need to berate my wife over her opinion of what that figure is when it comes to buying shoes.

Or it may afford me greater freedom to expand my NAS.

[Anonymous Coward]

Formula

No figure but a formula

10% of disposable income * D * (number of weeks since you last an argument about buying useless gear or superfluous shoes)/F

Where is F is the forgiveness quotient in weeks for your household and D is the debt-aversion ratio of your household.

[Geoff Campbell]

If in doubt, move the playing field.

Set yourself up a company, then anything you need becomes a) a vital business purchase and your decision alone, and b) tax deductible. Sorted.

GJC

[Geoff Spick]

geeks and wives

(True) Geeks don't have spouses - so this is a non-issue

[Anonymous Coward]

Not equal

For a male buying geekchic, it is _considerably_ lower than for a female buying shoes or handbags or clothes or fluffy kittens or whatever the hell they abuse your credit card on.

[Anonymous Coward]

"single spouse" is PC talk

"single-spouse decision" level is only PC talk for "husband decision". For the missus, anything is fair game that doesn't require a 10-years loan.

But that is indeed a moot point, as the only person true geeks need to ask is their mom. It's her credit card, after all. And it's going to tremendously increase the image of her basement, and thus the value of the whole house!

Anon, as the missus sometimes reads these pages.

[Anonymous Coward]

Agree with the HP assertion

TCO as shown in this article should become standard.

[Pat 11]

Or...

Just buy the cheap wifi one and use wireless tether on your Android phone.

[Peter 66]

State the obvious

Read the article, it states that if you can't afford to pay £529 for the thing from Apple then many people (who are not as wise as el reg readers) will see the £200 price tag and get one. They won't even think about the TCO of the thing with the contract, all they will see is the saving of £329 when in reality its costing them £848.

Its exactly like Brightstore, watch people get a no name brand tv for £3.50 a week for 8 years. There should be better regulation about such practices.

[The Fuzzy Wotnot]

A fool and their money are soon parted.

I've learnt, sadly more than once, from bitter experience!

[Anonymous Coward]

iPad for £200

a few purchases from the istore £300

No service from orange priceless...

[Sean 8]

Orange - No Way

A contract with Orange - no way. I was with them from the very start in the 90's. With them till last year. Then the Customer Service became a joke.

A good friend, recieved a bill from a phone provider ( no stating which one) for over £3K, made on his account by someone in Algeria. Considering he did not have roaming enabled. This was a shock. However it was insisted he pay for this third party use.

In the end, it went out to the regulator and they lost. The Bill was written off. Something that should have happend on day one.

[Paul 172]

huh?

"The iPhone was originally sold without a network subsidy, which is why it didn't have 3G or MMS"

Que...??

[Darren Barratt]

well it didn't

The first iteration of the Iphone didn't have 3G and MMS. Held it back quite a bit except for the proper fanbois who chose to claim that email was better anyway.

[JaimieV]

Or, in a less revisionist manner,

from people who never used MMS, and found that even EDGE web browsing on the original iPhone was considerably faster and better than webbing on a 3G E90 or N95. It sold like hot cakes.

[Darren Barratt]

Simmer down Fanboi

It did sell very well for an incomplete device.

*posted from my 3gs*

[TheOtherHobbbes]

And let's not forget

that iPad 2 will be out in April.

So anyone who signs up for this "subsidy" will be buying an item for around £300 over RRP, which will be obsolete in four months.

And which will be almost useless when iPad 3 arrives - because it's a fair bet that whatever version of iOS is around then will include the usual crippleware old-hardware lockdown.

If the deal had been £20/mth for 18 months, there would have been a stampede - even at £299 rather than £199.

But this is just a ploy to round up all the stupid people and mug them for Christmas.

[Synthmeister]

Sorry, the iPad is selling with or without a subsidy

The iPad--just like the iPhone--is exploding without a subsidy and the other OEMs can barely match the unsubsidized iPad price with smaller tablets AND a subsidy.

I'm sure Apple doesn't mind the extra Orange and T-mobile lunch money, but generally Apple is completely sidelining the telcos with the iPad and they don't even seem to realize it.

1. First iPad--Zero telco option, doesn't even have a 3G chip.

2. 3g iPad--no subscription required, pay as you go, stop when you want

3. China rollout--no telco meddling this time like with the kneecapped Chinese iPhone and no waiting for 3 years after the original device was introduced.

4. Verizon selling iPads in time for Christmas WITHOUT a CDMA chip and WITHOUT a two year subscription. This was a marketing masterstroke that must have put a huge lump of coal in Samsung's Christmas stocking.Even six months ago this idea would have been silly-talk and just goes to show how ambivalent Verizon is to Android and how desperate they are to get the iPhone

Also note that Apple made Facetime completely independent of the telcos. (And yes, I know that the current iPad can't do Facetime.)

[Anonymous Coward]

USP - not much

"Also note that Apple made Facetime completely independent of the telcos."

I strongly suspect his was at the request of the telcos.

[Geoff Campbell]

Sorry to burst your bubble with actual real facts....

....but you're wrong, plain and simple.

There are plenty of deals to get hold of a Galaxy Tab from little or no up-front cost, with a contract cost only a few quid higher than the £200 iPad deal.

The iPad is selling well, no doubt about that. But I'd still love to see figures on how many people who have bought them owned no other Apple devices prior to that.

GJC

[The Fuzzy Wotnot]

"a single-spouse decision"

I like that!

It always with me though, it's also "a single-spouse consequence" too when I've pushed my luck too far!

[Nigel Whitfield.]

Not such a bad rate, really

Doing the maths, that's equivalent to a total of 23% over two years, which is probably pretty comparable with using a credit card and not paying it off in full.

If you assume compound interest, in fact, the annual rate for that is 4.95%

T = P ( 1 + r/100) ^ n

Amazing the random stuff that clutters up the mind...

[Tom 38]

I bought it full fat

But I would have fancied a subsidized one if it was available.

One thing you may discount* on a mutli year contract is that money is generally lower in value next year - in undergrad terms, £5 buys less beer.

* depending on how much you want the item

[M Gale]

Apple == Bang & Olufsen

Overpriced tat that looks nice on the coffee table. But hey, you can get it on a 24-month hire purchase agreement with only £200 paid up front!

The rest of us get Kenwood or Sony or Technics or just about any other gear and it sounds just as good for half the price.

Flame on.

[Mark Serlin]

Except that...

...it's not just about functionality. Having bought the thing you then have to look at it for n years, have it sitting in your living room etc. So if your Kenwood, Sony or Technics is the best-looking thing in your house all I can say is you're living in a dump filled with ugly grotware. Now either you don't care and it's a conscious decision to ignore aesthetics maybe because of cost or you have no class. None of my business either way of course, but I recently bought a Dualit toaster and kettle just because they looked nice. While the toaster is a HUGE improvement over the old cheapo one, the kettle is kinda small and a bit noisy but I don't care, it looks nice and every time I walk into the kitchen I get a little happy glow :)

Anyway if B&O is "tat" why do you want something that sounds "just as good"? I'd go for way better and get a high-end Naim system and some massive speakers. Makes B&O look cheap though!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, thanks

No, I DON'T want an iPad, enough with these articles for crying out loud!!

[Andy Enderby 1]

200 quid ? er.....

Actual price £848. Come on El Reg, be a bit more critical. Orange have an advertising budget for that sort of none sense.

[Darren Barratt]

Don't forget Gideon Osborns beer money

That's the without VAT price. 441+17.5% = 518.18. Not such a bargin

[Paul was already taken]

Nope

Found it on Hot UK deals but the deal has expired. Damn and blast!

[PaulR79]

Galaxy Tab price drop

I saw the price of the Galaxy Tab when it was announced and like others nearly fell over. I looked a few days back and it's going for roughly £100 less than it was before, hovering around the £450 mark. It's still expensive and costs more than the basic iPad but it looks a better deal now at least. The "must have" price point for me is still probably around £350 - 380 though and if PC World can do their 10.1" Advent Vega for £250 I wouldn't mind paying the extra for a more solid and well constructed tablet.

[wer]

Hang on...

This is for the 3G version of the iPad - base version costs £529. So signing up for this is the same as buying the iPad and spending around £13 a month on a 3G data contract... doesn't seem too bad actually.

[Mark Serlin]

I really like these shiny pokey-things

Just that, really :)

Paris, because she's shiny and I'd happily....