Saturday, September 8, 2007

iPhone - Number One Enemy of Your Wallet

iPhone's international plan for data services in 29 countries (most of them are European countries) costs $24.99 for 20 megabytes. In countries outside the plan charges can hit a $20 per megabyte mark. iPhone has a "neat" feature, which regularly updates e-mail, even when the phone is off and this can translate into pretty solid amounts.

At least, this is what happened to Jay Levy and his family by using iPhone during their Mediterranean cruise. Their three iPhones generated a whopping $4,800 bill.

But the Levys are not alone. A 68 year old real estate agent from Bronx, Herbert Kliegerman said he incurred $2,000 while visiting Mexico. Kliegerman filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status in New York State Supreme Court last week. Simple, Apple did not properly disclose the international roaming charges. Kliegerman was offered a $1,5000 refund from AT&T Wireless but the real estate agent is seeking a full refund.

Interestingly, the 6,707-word terms and conditions document on the AT&T Web site says: "Substantial charges may be incurred if phone is taken out of the U.S. even if no services are intentionally used.". Wow, Kliegerman's chances are pretty slim of winning the case.

It seems to me that iPhone's honeymoon is over and the device has started facing difficulties of the real-world. Will iPhone survive or will Apple experience the same fiasco as the company did with personal computers? That is the question.

This post has been featured on BLOGVASION.COM

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