One of the costly monthly expenses for most households in America is their cellular phone bill. The CTIA Wireless Association estimates that average cell phone bill was $47 in 2012 but many individuals pay double that amount. The CTIA figures do not factor in the costs of handsets or choices for “reasonable” plans Smart phone consumers comprise 46% of the market (including 66% of youths aged 21-30). The CTIA figures do not factor in the costs of handsets or choices for “reasonable” plans. So there may be a low cost plan, but if one is required to carry a data package, monthly costs precipitously increase. Another reality is that the most of the major American cellular carriers push subsidized phones with strict two year agreements. Few cellular consumers consider the overall costs incurred with such a subsidized cell phone contract. Such customers are are more concerned about getting what they perceive is the latest and greatest handset for a couple of hundred dollars down (usually 1/3rd of the actual cost) while paying a significantly higher amount in the monthly cellular bill then they might pay otherwise. Tero Kuittinen, an independent market analyst from Alekstra, notes: "That psychology has worked for hundreds of years, and it’s still working.” Another factor to consider is the attachment that many people feel toward their cellular purchases. AT and T retained gripping customers for years because it retained a monopoly on i-Phones, which had a less generous plan and cost more than other smartphones, but those in the Apple cult craved it. It seems akin to the mentality which drives new car purchases that customers will overspend to get that “new car smell” for a durable that loses 20% immediately after purchase. T-Mobile took the lead among cell providers in weaning prospective customers from the subsidized cell phone model with their Simple Choice plan. But an alternate model which T-Mobile innovated but had more success in competitors emulating is the “Next, Edge, Jump” and “OneUp”. These programs which are essentially cell phone installment payment plans. Consumers lease a phone by paying a bit extra ($10-20 a month plus up to $10 for the privilege) for 20 to 24 months but with the ability to upgrade in six months to a year. But if consumers do not “jump”, then they will pay significantly more as there is no subsidy underwriting the purchase. This sort of gimmick may have some appeal to digerati would constantly want to upgrade without being locked in a contract, even though they are effectively locked in a contract. Alas, cell phone services are not fungible. Aside from the handset cost, choice of carriers are impacted by coverage. An inexpensive plan is worthless if one does not get range in one’s preferred calling area. Verizon Wireless has the best coverage but people pay a premium for the extensive coverage. But most customers may not need such extensive range. Cost conscious consumers should know that they can cut their cellular costs in half (or more), by using Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), pre-paid cell plans and fremium cell providers like FreedomPop. But the reality is that according to Ovum, only 23% of cellular customer have opted for such frugal mobile phone service. As MNVOs and the ilk do not have the deep pockets for advertising, they have a dubious reputation. In fact, when breaking up with Sprint to switch to one of its MVNOs Virgin Mobile to save half on cell costs, the customer service representative thought that it was a compelling argument to sneer “Well, that’s a pre-paid phone”. As a customer who had been off his contract for over a year and did not need another handset, that was a less than convincing ploy. Usually, second tier cellular carriers offer less current handsets. Even though these cell phones may only have been on the market for six months, finicky consumers turn their noses at these out of data handsets. Sometimes, upgrades are prudent, such as switching from a 3G phone to one that also gets faster 4G or LTE coverage. But when a new release is buggy, or simply has minor cosmetic changes, a savvy consumer should question whether the latest is really the greatest.Of course, with Apple i-Phones, a consumer can not replace the rechargable battery himself, so it may only be good for around 18 months before starts to need replacement. Personally, I have always considered the cellular phone plan to be more important than the particular handset. In addition, I tend to baby my cell phone, so it has less wear and tear on the unit. But my experience switching cellular carriers from a Sprint HTC Evo with a 4.3" capacitive screen to a Virgin Mobile Samsung Victory (Galaxy II) with a 4.0" but with 4G LTE has demonstrated that the slight difference in display size impacts inputting on a virtual QWERTY. What may drive my decision to switch cellular companies again is whether FreedomPop allows for Bring Your Own Devices with their Freemium model roll out. I would not buy one of FreedomPop’s outdated and refurbished HTC Evo Designs for $99 (or later $149), but I would happily switch to FreedomPop to get 200 voice minutes, 500 texts and 500 MB of data for free. FreedomPop is relying on consumers to add on to their free base. I might get unlimited calls and texts with a half Gig of data for $10.99. But since FreedomPop will allow for tethering (hotspots) and they charge $10 per Gig of data, my old HTC Evo might be a supplemental hotspot for months that I need it. In another phase of its Un-carrier campaign, T-Mobile tried to wreck the international roaming racket. T-Mobile stopped charging more for international text for Simple Choice customers when sending to 100+ countries. Calls to Simple Global countries aside from the US are at $0.20 a minute. Most importantly, there is no outrageous international data roaming charges at standard speeds. However there are some caveats to this International Roaming largesse. Alas, T-Mobile considers 2G (or 128 kbs) to be an ideal speed for e-mail, social media, web pages and navigation but it such speeds would be painfully slow for graphic intensive applications. So T-Mobile also offers three speed boost plans for international travelers. One day of higher data speed (100 MB) for $15, one week (200 MB) for $25 and two weeks (500 MB) for $50. This would be good for international travelers keeping in touch at home but operating on a guarded basis . Since T-Mobile allows BYOD for GSM phones, it might pay for a traveler not taking a quick jaunt overseas to pick up an old unlocked GSM phone and sticking with T-Mobile. Or they could just use that unlocked GSM phone with local SIM cards. As America enters harder economic times, more consumers may try to beat the high cost of living by answering the call to cheaper cellular services.
[This article originally ran on DCBarroco.com in anticipation of Black Friday but has been updated for the Summer of 2014. While the prices may have passed, the advise for analyzing features is golden] As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approaches, many merchants are highlighting inexpensive tablet computers as doorbusters or loss leaders to gin up overall Christmas holiday sales. But before making impulse electronics purchases, it is wise to consider how you would use a tablet in mobile computing. It used to be that tablets were the ideal media consumption device. Tablets with 7" to 10" screens allow an individual to have an almost immersive view of videos. Applications (a.k.a. apps) generally provided shortcuts which facilitated internet interactions. Some tablets like the Nook and the Kindle were more e-ink reading devices which could have proto-tablet functions (checking e-mail, Wikipedia, and text based websites). But Amazon’s Kindle Fire sought to be a loss leader which was a shopping portal doubling as an entertainment device. Samsung’s strong showing with its Galaxy Tablets as well as the “phablet” Note series sought to tie tablets to cellular carriers.
Discern what are your mobile computing needs. If you want a communications device with a larger screen (and you don’t mind carrying a 5.5" device in a pocket or a purse), then a “phablet” like the Samsung Note may be the best choice for you. Many retailers will be offering enticing prices for such hybrid phone/tablets, but be prepared to be locked into a cellular carrier for a year or two. If you want to keep having the latest and greatest devices, look into the early upgrade programs from major cellular carriers. Tablets sales used to be driven by Apple’s i-Pad, which came out in 2010. The i-Pad still wins 29.6% of the tablet market while asking for a premium price that is rarely discounted. While this writer is not purposely not part of the Apple cult, if one feels compelled to buy an Apple for its reputation of ease of use, enticing design or to keep up with the Jones’, then buy an i-Pad and sleep in on Black Friday. As an electronics consumer, I like to get the most bang for my buck with tables and not be limited by a vertical monopoly manufacturer. Currently I own a couple of Amazon Kindles and a WebOS HP Touchpad. I love to read on an e-ink device like the Kindle. Unfortunately, my Kindle 2 (with the slow but unrestricted 3G coverage) is losing its charge and computer geeks are reluctant to change out the battery. While the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite provides even better e-ink resolution, the newer model has dropped the headphones option and the text-to-speech feature. For my purposes. the text-to-speech ability is important for times which I want to enjoy books but can not have my eyes on the screen. But text-to-speech is included in the Kindle Fires. Regarding my HP Touchpad, I knew that it was a dead-end from the moment I acquired it in the HP fire-sale in the August 2011. But WebOs is an elegant operating system and the HP Touchpad had upscale features. Two years later, it is running fine and should be serviceable for the foreseeable future. Alas, there are not many new WebOs applications available. In order to use some hotspots, there are apps that are necessary and I am reluctant to make it a dual booting Android tablet. So between an ailing e-reader and a red headed stepchild tablet, I have my eye out on the surfeit of cheap tablets. Some have tried to take advantage of the slow demise of the Barnes and Noble Nook by using the SD card as an Android boot. It can work, but realize that the Nooks OS takes up nearly 3/4ths of an 8 GB e-reader. The 16 GB Nook HD tablets (list $150) offer more storage. But there are serious questions to the long term viability of the Nook. So it may only be good for reconfigured use or as a stuck in time tablet. Having owned several Kindles over the past four years, I am entrenched in Amazon’s e-reader market. The Amazon Kindle Fire HD has achieved around 5% market share, but it should suffice for my own supplemental tablet/ infotainment needs. Although a 16 GB Kindle Fire HD (list now $169) has a 7" screen is markedly smaller than the 9.7" HP Touchpad screen, it is a more manageable size for e-reading functions. Moreover, my mobile computing needs have not been as video oriented. The Kindle Fire HD has Bluetooth, which should allow a wireless keyboard for productivity. The Kindle Fire HD does allow for hotspot connection hence buying a 4G version is costly and unnecessary. For those interested in getting Black Friday bargains for the Amazon Fire, be aware that the discounts will be for the Fire HD (2nd generation) not the newer Fire HDX. If one can live without using a tablet as a camera or a phone or having the “Mayday” feature, the HD will have most of the improvements of Kindle Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito “ (a forked version of Android). Many of the cut rate Kindle Fires are 8 GB (which should leave around 6 GB for internal storage along with the cloud).
While most mobile computing people look to tablets as a media consumption device, some industrious individuals want to have a tablet that is a quasi laptop without the bulk or balking at the price of a MacBook Air (list $999). When Microsoft entered the tablet market, it tried to appeal to such customers with the Microsoft Surface RT. The price point of the Microsoft Surface 2 (list $449) rivals that of the i-Pad (list $499), but Microsoft throws in fully functioning version of Office and 200 GB of SkyDrive storage and plenty of cloud storage, features which generally cost extra elsewhere.
The 10.6" touch screen of the Microsoft Surface makes full use of Metro interface, but if one wishes to run old programs, it is necessary to buy a Microsoft Surface Pro (original MSRP at $899 but Surface Pro 3 now lists at $799), which is much pricier. The big tiles on the start screen are customizable and offer updated embedded information. The Surface RT allows multitasking. The body of the Microsoft Surface RT includes a built in kick stand. The Surface RT has micro SDSX ports allowing users to add memory. The magnetic Touch Cover is ordinarily a $119 add on which both protects the screen and can be used as a keyboard. While the Windows Apps store is not as robust as the Android or i-store, they claim that plenty of apps are free. If you have Surface appeal, it was possible to find a Surface RT for under $200 during Black Friday sales and for similar prices on Ebay. Invest in the cover as the keyboard cover is key, otherwise it is just an overpriced tablet running an apps limited version of Windows 8.1. There will be plenty of Black Friday sales on Android tablets. If Android tablets have an appeal, determine which version of OS the hardware has, as earlier versions of Android (prior to 4.0“Jelly Bean”) are not optimized to tablet proportions. Also be aware of how much storage is on the tablet. A $40 tablet that only boasts 4GB will barely hold one movie. That might be good enough for kinderspiel but would quickly be condemned to the land of misfit toys for most other tablet users. This holiday shopping season it may be easy to acquire a tablet but take the time to choose the right tablet for you. Consumers who are content to pay premium prices for an entertainment consumption device which is touted to work out of the box should opt for an i-Pad. Busy businessmen may want the Microsoft Surface to be able to do Office work while surfing the web on their tablets. Those who want an all in one mobile communications device should consider a “phablet” like the Samsung Galaxy Note. Avid readers who want the functionality of a tablet should lean towards the Amazon Kindle Fire. And there are a variety of inexpensive Android tablets which may motivate impulse shoppers. h/t: BFAds
Cellular telephony allows us to always be in touch telephonically, to act as a digital music player, to have a camera and video cam at the ready, as well as potentially carrying around a computer in the deceptive disguise of a smart-phone. Some foolish souls will risk life and limb to keep their cell phones. But these ordinary conveniences come at a cost. Today, a sizable major portion of Americans household budgets are dedicated to communication costs. People become so caught up at the prospect of a shiny new telephonic toy that they lose sight of the monthly costs associated with this privilege. Recently, I wrote "A Cellular Call for Change” to consider how the mobile telephony industry in America is on the cusp of shifting away from highly subsidized handsets with expensive iron clad two year contracts to more of a BYOD marketplace which offers lower rates if you foot the bill for your phone. The article urged the savvy consumer to know yourself and investigate thoroughly. Well, I took my own advice. I dug deep into a spreadsheet about my household’s cell-phone usage while doing an intense analysis of cellular providers plans and quirks. The results were somewhat surprising. My household has been with Sprint for nearly six years. We are well out of contract with our current smart-phones (a HTC Evo and a Samsung Epic) but we have been happy with the service, aside from the cost. Since our handsets are in excellent condition, there is neither a need nor desire to upgrade phones, especially in return for a costly 24 month contract. Even though we were initially sold on Sprint because of the 7PM Nights and Weekends, a hard nosed analysis of usage showed the most of the minutes used stemmed from free Mobile-to-Mobile calling. Yet including the Anytime, Nights and Weekends as well as Mobile-to-Mobile minutes, we never broke the 1000 minute total threshold (and one of the handsets consistently used most of the minutes). Our texts were under 1000 total. Data was the variable. While it was nice to have the certainty of Unlimited Minutes, my household was not a data hog. There were a few times over the course of the year when we used 3 Gig of data a month between the phones, most months hovered just over 2 Gigs combined. There were few months when mobile data usage was above 3 Gig and one month at 4 Gig. Most of our time is in the District of Calamity (sic) or Between the Beltways. But much of our travel takes us to southwestern Virginia where cellular service can be persnickety, and 4G coverage is virtually non-existent. Our experience is that Sprint Network voice and data in the destination area is good for us without paying the high fees for Verizon’s stellar coverage. One would think that cellular companies would be keen on keeping their customers, especially those customers who are not servicing a subsidized phone anymore. Both Verizon and ATT have churn rates below 1%, while Sprint has a 1.69% churn and T-Moblile sports an ugly 2.10% rate. But such competitive spirit was not shown by our current carrier, as a couple of calls to Sprint’s Customer Service proved otherwise. These Sprint Customer Service Reps were supposed to be staffing a retention line. But other than being thanked for our long time loyalty and being reminded of a current rate, we were not given any incentives to stay. Since we did not need a new low cost phone in exchange for a two year contract, they could do nothing for us. It is infuriating to pay a $10 a month surcharge per handset for smart- phones well after these extra costs were long since covered. Worse yet, the CSRs gave conflicting and incorrect information while running down their Mobile Virtual Network Operator or MVNO competition (including Boost and Virgin Mobile which Sprint owns).. The CSR insisted that we could only save $30 a month by switching to a MVNO despite my research that we could save nearly thrice that amount. My research led me to two potential choices–a sweet young Ting (sic) or a Virgin Mobile. Ting.com is a MVNO owned by Tucows which operates off of the CDMA Sprint Network. While Ting has only been offering prepaid cellular service since February 2012, their parent company Tucows has been around since 1994 which gives it some credence of stability. Ting’s distinctive feature is use what you pay for billing. Ting's pricing is given in tiers from XS to XXL for voice, texting and data and consumers can mix and match on a monthly basis. If one estimates too high for any given service, Ting will credit the customer for the next month. Ting does not charge for hotspots, which is a hot point for switching from Sprint which charges $29.99 per line for the privilege. One other welcomed feature from Ting is a Customer Service line which operates during extended weekday business hours based in Canada, so a customer can understand what is being said to them, eh? Ting does not subsidize handsets, but allows for BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices). Ting seems to charge full freight on the new cell phones that they sell (even compared to other prepaid cellular services), but they have links for getting refurbished handsets as well as allowing one to BYOD. While many all you can eat cellular consumers could have if they were charged based on usage, it seems that Ting has slightly higher rates for add-on data. For instance, if a consumer exceeds 3Gig of Data, more data is charged at $22 a Gig. If a consumer watches lots of mobile video or has cut the phone cord at the house, an unlimited plan may be a better way to go.
For our household's purposes, the other cellular player is Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile is a quasi-MVNO which is owned by Sprint and is their mid-ranged prepaid cellular service. Virgin Mobile does not have the sexiest and newest smart-phones but their plans are quite attractively priced. Virgin Mobile rates have three tiers.
•For $55 a month, one can have unlimited voice, texting and data. •The $45 a month plan has 1200 Voice minutes, unlimited Texting and Data•A $35 a month plan has 300 Voice minutes, unlimited Texing and Data.
The caveat to unlimited data is 2.5 Gig at up to 4G speed, then a consumer is throttled back to 3G speed until the next billing period. If a consumer uses a Virgin Mobile hotspot, it is an additional $15 a month. Although it is damn near impossible to speak to a human being through Virgin Mobile’s toll free number, the cyber telephone tree can yield information as well as the website. Moreover, bills can be paid at plethora of locations, including 7-11 along with the web. While there has been conflicting information, Virgin Mobile does allow some Sprint CDMA devices to be ported to their MVNO. Not all phones can be used thru Virgin Mobile as hotspots, so 4G Wimax phones are fine but the new to Sprint 4G LTE handsets can not be used in such a profligate way. Practically speaking, switching to Virgin Mobile does requiring replacing one handset and separate billing for each line. At this time, Virgin Mobile is offering the Samsung Victory– a mid ranged Galaxy class handset with 4G LTE capabilities– at a reasonable rate. Although I can conjure scenarios in which opting for Ting would save slightly more money than Virgin Mobile and offer free hotspots. But for those out of pocket times when mobile data is key, a cost effective tactic would be to use a no to low cost external hotspot from FreedomPop. It takes two for that plan to work and that may be too confusing to implement. So the lowest priced option might not be the best way for my household. Since most of the heavy mobile data usage would be in areas which only have 3G data coverage, it would not matter if the 4G was throttled back. The hotspot could be turned on for the months when significant time is spent at the rural locale. So as it stands, Virgin (Mobile) comes out on top in the head to head cellular competition against Ting. Either way, it will cut our cell phone bill in half. The costs incurred to switch to Virgin Mobile to buy a new handset would be recouped in two months of savings viz-a-viz Sprint. But I’ll still hold onto my old HTC Evo, as a backup and in case I switch again to a BYOD MVNO. Thomas Sowell once opined that “There are no such thing as solutions, but only trade offs.” So to make the right choice, a savvy consumer should run the numbers themselves, determine if their carrier gives good reception where the phone will be used the most and determine how he will use cellular service. If you are just texting, Ting charges $9 a month with 1000 texts or an SMS happy user $17 a month for 4000 texts. Virgin Mobile hypnotically suggests that one should "retrain your brain." Some might find all of the choices confusing and headache inducing. But think about all of the aspirin one can easily afford from your monthly cell phone savings!
Tero Kuittinen, an independent market analyst from Alekstra, notes: "That psychology has worked for hundreds of years, and it’s still working.” Another factor to consider is the attachment that many people feel toward their cellular purchases. AT and T retained gripping customers for years because it retained a monopoly on i-Phones, which had a less generous plan and cost more than other smartphones, but those in the Apple cult craved it. It seems akin to the mentality which drives new car purchases that customers will overspend to get that “new car smell” for a durable that loses 20% immediately after purchase. 
