iPhone 4G?

[RickPeete]

Banking is moving towards the idea of biometics for mobile devices if only to prevent unauthorized access to customer banking information due to the loss or theft of someone's phone.  People lose or have their phones stolen daily.  While that used to be a worry about who had your contact list, now it is a worry about what secure content was stored on it.

[Feathers]

my phone before the 3G before the current 4 had a fingerprint scanner. I can't say I ever really used it.

[Rico]

A bit more details on Verizon's upcoming pricing plan.  Still seems to be somewhat in flux:

Take that, AT&T! Well, sort of.

Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) poured some gas onto the iPhone fire Tuesday morning when it announced that it would offer the same $30 unlimited data plan for the iPhone as it offers for all of its other smartphones.

But by Tuesday afternoon, the company updated its announcement and backpedaled, saying it would only offer the unlimited iPhone data plan "for a limited time." Those who get in during the window will have unlimited data on their iPhones throughout the life of their Verizon contract.

The company declined to comment on how long the temporary unlimited offer would last. But it said that after the initial period, it will move to a metered system similar to the one used by AT&T (T, Fortune 500), which makes its smartphone customers pay for the amount of data they consume.

In June, AT&T slashed the starting prices of its data plans, but also added caps to them and eliminated its unlimited plan. AT&T customers now pay $15 a month for 250 megabytes of monthly data, or $25 for 2 gigabytes and an additional $10 for each gigabyte of monthly data usage that exceeds the allotted 2 GB limit.

So even though the cheapest available monthly iPhone voice plus data plan on AT&T is $54.99, compared to $69.99 on Verizon, customers that download 2.1 GB of data on their iPhones will pay $69.99 if they have Verizon -- compared to $74.99 on AT&T. For a limited time, anyway.

That's not so hard to do: If you want to watch Netflix (NFLX) on your iPhone using a mobile connection, 2 GB only gets you between six and 12 hours of streaming movies and TV shows, depending on the bit rate.

When it unveiled its iPhone earlier this month, Verizon Wireless declined to discuss the phone's data plan pricing. That fueled speculation that Verizon would go the way of AT&T and introduce a tiered plan, ditching the all-you-can-eat option.

Early Tuesday, the company seemed to recognize that would be a competitive mistake.

"I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot," Lowell McAdam, Verizon's chief operating officer, told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. He said that moving towards a tiered data plan would reduce the number of iPhone customers that would defect from rival AT&T.

But after initially backing his comments, the company pulled back. More details of Verizon's data-pricing plan will be announced later, a spokeswoman said.

AT&T has been pounded for years about its network struggles, which recently got it crowned "worst carrier" in America in a Consumer Reports survey. The company's 20 million iPhone customers are often its most vocally unhappy customers.

Still, only about 2.5 million customers are expected to defect to Verizon next month, according to numerous analyst estimates, thanks in large part to the high early termination costs that AT&T built into its contracts.

The iPhone will be available to Verizon customers for pre-sale Feb. 3 and it will appear in stores on Feb. 10.

source:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/25/technology/verizon_iphone_plan/

[Jobydrone]

We're grandfathered in and still have unlimited data on our AT&T plan, which is good because my kids are constantly streaming Netflix on mine and my wife's phones.  It's still a huge expense and I kind of wish I could drop them completely.  The phones, not the kids ;)

[Rico]

They stream on the iPhones and not the iPad??

[KingIsaacLinksr]

 I predicted that even if the iPhone did arrive to Verizon that Verzion would pull an AT&T and this is them basically doing the same thing.  Rather annoying that I can easily predict company behavior at this point.  

King

[X]

I predicted that even if the iPhone did arrive to Verizon that Verzion would pull an AT&T and this is them basically doing the same thing.  Rather annoying that I can easily predict company behavior at this point. 

King

Actually it's not. It's them trying to create demand for their services by offering something that has a limited window.

[Jobydrone]

They stream on the iPhones and not the iPad??

Those destructive little gremlins are rarely allowed to touch my glorious iPad.  

We do stream on iPad but generally all of us together when I can keep an eye on them.  Even then it's every ten seconds..."Stop touching it!"  

My daughter was given my wife's old 3G iPhone when she upgraded to a 3GS.  My daughter uses it as an iPod but there's a bunch of games and Netflix on there which she streams over my WiFi, so that doesn't impact our AT&T plan.  But in the car, especially on long trips, they are usually screaming for us to give them our phones so they can watch movies.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I predicted that even if the iPhone did arrive to Verizon that Verzion would pull an AT&T and this is them basically doing the same thing.  Rather annoying that I can easily predict company behavior at this point. 

King

Actually it's not. It's them trying to create demand for their services by offering something that has a limited window.

Regardless of the what they are trying to do, the end result is that those who come later will not have access to the unlimited plan.  The same restriction AT&T has. 

King

[Feathers]

Hardly much of a prediction either. It pretty much follows the model we've had over here for iPhone plans.

If a service costs something to provide, you shouldn't be that surprised when it costs other providers pretty much the same price, surely?

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Hardly much of a prediction either. It pretty much follows the model we've had over here for iPhone plans.

If a service costs something to provide, you shouldn't be that surprised when it costs other providers pretty much the same price, surely?

Its not the cost that surprises me, its the fact that they are removing the unlimited data plan pretty quickly.  Its to prevent Verizon's network from being crippled, that's the only thing I can think of. 

King

[Feathers]

Either that or to try and get some return on the investment in the network itself. From what I read, the rapid progression to 4G standards isn't giving enough time for networks to recover the costs of building the 3G networks. Thus they need to charge more to recover their costs before it all gets ripped out and replaced.

[Jobydrone]

I'd like to see some figures on how much money these companies make on overage fees.  My guess is a freaking fortune.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I'd like to see some figures on how much money these companies make on overage fees.  My guess is a freaking fortune.

If a lot of people are on the smaller data plan, you are probably right. 

King

[billybob476]

I guess that depends on your usage. On a 500 meg data plan I've never even broken 300 megs. I just don't stream much over 3G.