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tadfisher
The gap for more "advanced" plans is even more egregious; Wal-Mart+T-Mobile US is providing a pay-as-you-go plan for $30/mo with unlimited (5GB throttled) HSPA+ data+SMS and 100 minutes of voice. Over two years, the plan itself (assuming no overages) works out to about $720. Ignoring the cost of the phone, Verizon's most comparable plan (400 minutes voice, 5GB data, unlimited text) is $140/mo, or $3360 over two years.
MatthewPhillips
T-Mobile's prepaid network is smaller than their general network (or so the reps told me)
vetinari
The rep lied to you, he wanted to sell you postpaid. Better commision for him.

Network-wise, the difference is in the billing backend, not in the towers or coverage.

mooism2
I'm not saying there's no cost difference or that it's not getting larger, but the post doesn't compare like with like. How would that Android phone compare to an iphone 3GS on payg? That's a more interesting question.
moped
I've had some success with putting an AT&T GoPhone SIM directly into an iPhone 4 with no jailbreak/unlock.

Couple that with Google Voice (and the Talkatone app), and you can barely use cell minutes.

ScottMFisher
You can use an AT&T iPad sim and get a $25/month data-only plan. This is what I do with my 3GS when I visit the US, otherwise the costs are extortionate. Don't tell anyone though. I'd like it to still work the next time I'm in the US...
hollerith
Is there any way to get an iPad sim without having a 3G iPad?
moped
You can go to an AT&T store, and just ask for a iPad sim.
Synaesthesia
Why not simply compare the price of an unlocked iPhone to an unlocked Android? iPhone 4S costs $649-849, simple.
angryasian
I think the issue is still.. the only company offering data + voice for an iphone without a plan is t-mobile and then still its only edge. So for people saying its 300 offset ( for what reason I don't know why) .. some of the comments stated productivity.. edge only would skew the scales the other way.
danielamitay
Although I agree that the price difference is staggering, the important metric to measure these phones by is depreciation. If the iPhone user can sell that iPhone for a few hundred dollars at the end of those two years (I certainly have), then the cost of using the phone isn't that high. On the Android side I'm pretty sure depreciation is quite fast.

Additionally, the figures pointed out in this article are totals of the Voice&Data plans tied to the iPhones by AT&T. These are costs of a minimum iPhone service as deemed by AT&T, and not a cost of the iPhone itself.