1) A camera making resonable photos. I won’t always carry along a digital camera but the phone I always have with me. This is especially valuable when having kids as otherwise some photos won’t exist.

2) Navigation in my car. Makes trips less stressful and finds shorter routes. The latter saves gas and thus money.

3) Using it for timetables for public transport. Really handy when using it instead of ones own car to get to places one wasn’t before. Especially if it is extremly easy to create your personal ones w/o any need for using a PC.

4) Also replaces the PC for part of my web browsing at home. As a phone uses far less energy than a full blown PC, this should save some money in the long run. Is also more comfortable and flexible than sitting at the desk.

5) Use it to listen to radio shows that I really like (available as podcasts) instead of only those broadcast on radio right now. Not possible with my cars radio and not as comfortable on a normal MP3 player.

6) Using the postcast feature to listen to English language podcasts. Helps me improve my English – important to me, as I don’t have the advantage of being a native speaker.

7) Can also get used to watch a TV show recorded on TV. That one will be useful in public transport. So one can better schedule ones time. For using while driving this is less advisable for obvious reasons.

Allows me to find places with good food when I am in a foreign city. Came in handy lately when I was on a trip for getting some training.

9) Gives me the ability to have an Internet connection everywhere for a laptop. Instead of paying for hotel’s WLAN I just use my mobile phone. Works very well with UMTS.

10) Replaces the alarm clock. I don’t have a wrist watch, either. Why bother if the phone already does it.

11) Also sometimes handy is the abilty to take notes. It is not necessary to take pen and paper with me for this.

12) Allows me to have my own personal call handling. Who should normally not call me, gets straight to the voice mailbox. Is also extremly configurable (can be setup even with a complete menu system) and something my last phone couldn’t provide. Helps keep calls away where someone got your phone number previously but shouldn’t use it anymore.

To me all the things taken together make it worth the money even though I now need a data plan.

The iphone hardware cost of $199 each plus activation is under $250 per line. So if I can somehow take that $500 and invest it somewhere else with the rest of my regular savings and investments, and turn the $500 into $1M, I’d like to see how that’s possible.

Frankly, the journalists who latch on to tech and other buzz and exploit it with bogus headlines to get their page views up are just as much scumbags as the paparazzi in Hollywood.

And we’re all tools for not being able to look away.

I love my iPhone. It’s the best phone I’ve ever owned. And the internet and bells and whistles over what I would get through purchasing another handset just add to that value.

Here’s the real math – over the next 12 months, my 2 iPhones and plan will have cost me $2540 and then $2040 per year after that (although the plan price will most likely drop).

In the end, I would take $1M over the $2040/year my 2 iPhones are going to cost me. Who wouldn’t? I suppose the author is saying go without any phone at all and invest an extra $2000 bucks per year to become a millionaire?

If you stop driving your car, you’ll save more money on gas than it costs to have an iphone.

Bogus bogus bogus.

I personally would take the $1 million, but for the sake of peace at home, I have avoided an argument with the mister about this. Peace in one’s household may probably be worth more than $1 million when you think about it!

Oh, also, luckily my work is going to subsidize $40/month of the plan, so my outlay for mobile plan isn’t changing month-to-month. If anything, it might be going down a little.

Regardless, the lad in the comic is likely going to have to have a mobile anyway, so I think it will end up being more or less a wash.

I’ll gladly take the million though.

I realize the article was just a generalization, but it makes you think.

What they don’t take into account is the fact that an iPhone serves as a phone, iPod, GPS system, and mobile Internet device. The cost of purchasing all of these items individually could very well cost more than an iPhone. I explore these issues in my article Is the iPhone 3G Worth It?

Let’s go back 43 years…

The DJIA was around 878 on July 11, 1968.

Right now it is around 11,022. Do you think people 43 years ago were imagining the DJIA would go from 878 to 11,022?

This is the power of compound interest. This is why we humans make stupid decisions about our finances every day. We live in the present – we don’t think in the future or in terms of compound interest.

And keep in mind the DJIA is just a handful of companies. It is not the entire stock market by any means.

seriously though.. it’s funny how apple tries to get you.. they lowered the price (but up’d the data plan an extra $10 a month for the 3g) so in the end you’re still paying the original amount

i don’t plan on getting it.. i’m holding on to my 1st generation iphone as long as i can

Keep budgeting.

I have an 80 GB video iPod that is full of music, videos, and audio books for the bus commute to and from work.

My video iPod also doubles as a backup hard drive when I need to transfer larges file between home and work.

Read my 6 reasons for NOT buying one:
http://www.nickstraffictricks.com/6-reasons-i-am-not-buying-the-new-iphone-3g/

Exactly.

When I was younger, I didn’t understand this. I just bought anything I wanted (on credit) indiscriminately. Now I weigh the choices. There are times I choose the Now (the iPhone), but most of the time I choose the future!

Do we really see that happening?

If I have the math wrong someone please correct me.