[freudling]

Logic: because Apple diversified the iPod that means they will without question diversify the iPhone. Right.

Bottom line: 4 years on the market, 1 iPhone.

But enough hand waving. I know they won't release a smaller version of the iPhone, like an iPhone Nano. There're a lot of reasons why.

But some of us have thought this through. Why don't you go ahead and tell us WHY Apple would/should diversify the iPhone. What do the variations look like? What sizes and designs? What compromises do they make? What are they good at? What does the software look like?

If you're going to mention a Nano version, feel free to also talk about the MS Kin and the HP Veer.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Jesus, are you for real? And italics, bold, and underlining all in the same post. Can you stop making yourself look like a blowhard?

Back with a bang.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by freudling 

If you're going to mention a Nano version, feel free to also talk about the MS Kin and the HP Veer.

For one, Sierra was primarily talking about a LARGER version (The Phone That Wouldn't Fit In Your Pocket).

And the MS Kin *so* did NOT fail due to its size. Project Pink was an exercise in hilarity and face palm from the day they bought Danger.

[Waragainstsleep]

I went into a Carphone Warehouse yesterday and the back page of their catalogue alone had about 50 or more PAYG phone options on it. Introduce the different talk plans for the different carriers and you end up with the most ridiculous product matrix in history with way more options than anyone who doesn't know what they want already could ever want to think about in a shop.
This kind of product range means you end up with exactly the same deal as PC world in that while you stock a massive range of products, you end up being incentivised (bribed) to push certain models/callplans/carriers when asked by a customer assist you. All under the guise of being neutral and independent when offering advice.

If you want an iPhone, you just say "iPhone" and get the one you can afford. Apple still has to contend with all the different carriers and call plans which I'm fairly sure bugs the hell out of them, but its worlds away from 20 models from each of the 20 manufacturers that you might be looking at otherwise.

You also have to take into account that Apple's approach of just one phone has already gotten them to number one in terms of smartphone volume shipments, and way before that they were number one by a large distance in terms of profits in the phone industry.

Looking at the iPod diversification, you have to look at why it happened.
The classic was too bulky for exercise (not mention HDDs do not like running) and too expensive for kids so they made the Mini. Then flash became viable so they swapped the Mini for the Nano and eventually introduced the Shuffle so that kids without rich parents could afford to have an iPod. Then came the touch which caters for kids whose parents don't want them having a phone and crazy people who like iPods but don't like iPhones. (Guessing mostly those people who feel a need to get a new phone every month or so).

So how to diversify the iPhone:

iPhone Classic: Two options, either a 250GB HDD making the phone half an inch thick and much more failure prone, or 256GB flash model adding bulk and also adding $500 or more to the price tag. I don't see either of these happening until 256GB flash is small enough and cheap enough.

iPhone Shuffle: iPhones must have screens. Nope.

iPhone Nano: While it is the most likely, it really only caters to children. Rich kids already get full size iPhones, poor kids get hand-me down iPhones. Even if you shrink the phone, you still need an expensive data plan to use it properly. You can already get free iPhones with certain data plans and given how many people break the bank to have a full size iPhone now and would certainly jump to a cheaper model I just don't think it makes the business sense that some people think it does. Making this phone would be an obvious move for conventional businesses. The chance might be slightly more with Steve Jobs gone, but given Apple keeps growing and breaking records with its single product line iPhones, I don't see it happening yet. Maybe if the growth starts to flatten off. Not for a few years yet though I think.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Ya, and after 4 years there's still only 1 iPhone.

How long did the Mac desktop line go before Apple diversified it to add a low-end option (Mac Mini)? 30 years? Hell, they even added a true Right-Clickable mouse after 30+ years.

Apple will do whatever it needs to do when they feel that consumer demand and technological availability have made meeting that need possible. It might take 2 years ... it might take 30. That's not to say that I definitely think Apple WILL diversify the iPhone line; it just means that it's impossible to say they definitely WON'T.

You need to stop living in absolutes; it'll make your life so much less confrontational.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak 

Apple will do whatever it needs to do when they feel that consumer demand and technological availability have made meeting that need possible.

Its not about possible. Its about profitable. And also about making a product that is excellent without taking away from the excellence of the other products.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak 

How long did the Mac desktop line go before Apple diversified it to add a low-end option (Mac Mini)? 30 years? Hell, they even added a true Right-Clickable mouse after 30+ years.

The Macintosh Classic was introduced in 1990. The LC shortly after that, IIRC.

Right-click support was introduced not too much later. Apple didn't build a two button mouse until they figured out a way to build a single-button mouse that supported secondary click. Twenty years after the introduction of Macintosh.

In the 90s, Apple diversified like crazy (IIRC, they had over 70 models on offer at one point, including options), and they were hemorrhaging money.

[Wiskedjak]

Either way. Point being: Apple does diversify it's product lines and it can take many years before doing so.

[Spheric Harlot]

Certainly.

It also knows that diversification can lead to dilution and hurt your business, so they'll generally tend to opt against it.

Any other company would have *added* the iPod nano to their line. Apple killed their best-selling product in its prime and simply replaced it.

Also, the Mighty Mouse wasn't added to the product line; it wasn't diversification. It replaced the Pro mouse.

[SierraDragon]

Certainly in the short term there are plenty of reasons for Apple to only have one new phone model:

• Actually they are selling three different phones, two different exterior designs, different flash choices, different color choices, different prices now. So the "only one phone" argument is already somewhat specious.

• Adding Verizon and then Sprint have added tens of millions of phone sales very quickly. Adding new carriers is a form of diversification in itself, and it makes sense to first focus more on properly servicing the complexities of multiple carriers, networks, countries and languages (it boggles my mind to think about how complex that task is) before further diversifying the size options. Failure to implement properly could blow everything, no matter how good the product is.

• Sales growth has been very rapid, and just dealing with ramping up manufacturing/distribution of the three different phones currently being sold and their options is a significant task.

Long term, OTOH, it makes sense to further diversify. Or maybe it is more accurate to say "change the existing diverse mix."

For instance, looking at my 3G iPhone I could see a version with the same display but with borders removed; i.e. a smaller iPhone that replaces the 3G at some point. Similarly I could see an iPhone with a display the full size of the 3G or of the 4 form factor, but with no borders. And a really larger phone (like some of the Android hardware) is another option.

Will Apple go there? I think yes, but only after all the existing rapid growth and disarrayed worldwide networks are better under control.

Just my 0.02.

-Allen

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

It also knows that diversification can lead to dilution and hurt your business, so they'll generally tend to opt against it.

More often failure to diversify can lead to the death of a business. Imagine if Apple had failed to diversify into laptops, for instance. Or into music, or into phones, or into tablets. Or into retail stores, or into...

-Allen

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by SierraDragon 

More often failure to diversify can lead to the death of a business. Imagine if Apple had failed to diversify into laptops, for instance. Or into music, or into phones, or into tablets.

Offering multiple configurations of essentially the same product is *NOT* diversification.

-t

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Offering multiple configurations of essentially the same product is *NOT* diversification.

Sorry, I do not understand what you mean. IMO there are multiple different types of diversification, but that seems mostly a semantic discussion.

[turtle777]

According to the examples given by you (laptops, music, phones, tablets), offering *just* more phone configurations would not be a (meaningful) diversification.

Or, to put it differently: small incremental "diversification" like changing screen size will not avoid death of a business.
It's useless for making sure the business remains relevant and cutting edge.

-t

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

...small incremental "diversification" like changing screen size will not avoid death of a business.
It's useless for making sure the business remains relevant and cutting edge.

I fully concur. If I implied otherwise I mis-communicated.

What I do believe is that as products evolve in large diverse markets opportunity exists for selling more product with certain carefully chosen variations. Adding white color, for instance, certainly did not make the iP4 particularly more relevant and cutting edge but it addressed a market need and probably adds to phone sales.

Similarly IMO at some point additional screen size choices (currently two different displays, 960x640 & 480x320, same physical dimension) is a market opportunity. During the run up to the 4s there were many online debates with folks wanting both bigger and smaller displays. I fully agree that like color, such choices are hardly enterprise-critical but I do think that worthy market opportunity presents.

Edit: I do not see why my suggestion is perceived as such a radical change. Note that with two different displays now, Apple could drop one and add a different-physical-size 960x640 display and still only be selling two display choices.

-Allen

[freudling]

Originally Posted by SierraDragon 

Certainly in the short term there are plenty of reasons for Apple to only have one new phone model:

• Actually they are selling three different phones, two different exterior designs, different flash choices, different color choices, different prices now. So the "only one phone" argument is already somewhat specious.

• Adding Verizon and then Sprint have added tens of millions of phone sales very quickly. Adding new carriers is a form of diversification in itself, and it makes sense to first focus more on properly servicing the complexities of multiple carriers, networks, countries and languages (it boggles my mind to think about how complex that task is) before further diversifying the size options. Failure to implement properly could blow everything, no matter how good the product is.

• Sales growth has been very rapid, and just dealing with ramping up manufacturing/distribution of the three different phones currently being sold and their options is a significant task.

Long term, OTOH, it makes sense to further diversify. Or maybe it is more accurate to say "change the existing diverse mix."

For instance, looking at my 3G iPhone I could see a version with the same display but with borders removed; i.e. a smaller iPhone that replaces the 3G at some point. Similarly I could see an iPhone with a display the full size of the 3G or of the 4 form factor, but with no borders. And a really larger phone (like some of the Android hardware) is another option.

Will Apple go there? I think yes, but only after all the existing rapid growth and disarrayed worldwide networks are better under control.

Just my 0.02.

-Allen

Right. No, no, no. Apple has 1 iPhone. They launch 1 new iPhone per year. They don't diversify with several different new phones every year like pretty much every manufacturer does.

The old phones are just that: old models that are cheaper. Apple keeps them around because of economies of scale, marketshare, in the context of a recessive economy, etc.

The day Apple launches 2 or more new iPhones that are noticeably differentiated from each other, like an iPhone Nano, then they've diversified. But it won't happen. It won't happen because the iPhone is simply a screen. If you take the screen away, it won't be an iPhone anymore. The iPhone is the singular device, it's an iPod, an Internet communicator, and a phone, all in one. It replaces PDAs, iPods, feature mobile phones, and in some usage situations, even laptops (full Internet, Email, contacts, document editing, PDF viewing, etc. on the go).

The only thing that will happen is that the iPhone's screen will get larger. They'll find the sweet spot size, which I already linked to the prototype video of the iPhone 5 (could be close to what the real one will be). It's hardly any wider, much thinner, and smaller height-wise. When they nail the design around this new size, they won't turn back or diversify it. That'll be it. The perfect phone, again.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by freudling 

The only thing that will happen is that the iPhone's screen will get larger. They'll find the sweet spot size, which I already linked to the prototype video of the iPhone 5 (could be close to what the real one will be).

I'm quite certain that they tested and tried for AGES until they actually FOUND the sweet spot.

They wouldn't have released it otherwise, back in 2007.

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Right. No, no, no. Apple has 1 iPhone. They launch 1 new iPhone per year. They don't diversify with several different new phones every year like pretty much every manufacturer does.

The old phones are just that: old models that are cheaper. Apple keeps them around because of economies of scale, marketshare, in the context of a recessive economy, etc.

The day Apple launches 2 or more new iPhones that are noticeably differentiated from each other, like an iPhone Nano, then they've diversified.

Clearly we see things differently. The way I see it, as long as Apple continues making new ones and selling the phones that comprises the line of phones. Diversity in a product line is NOT solely defined as what gets launched all at the exact same time.

-Allen

[freudling]

Originally Posted by SierraDragon 

Clearly we see things differently. The way I see it, as long as Apple continues making new ones and selling the phones that comprises the line of phones. Diversity in a product line is NOT solely defined as what gets launched all at the exact same time.

-Allen

Apple has diversified its iPhone product. There's so much choice I don't know which one to get. The 3.5" screen single core, the 4.25" screen dual core pink with diesel engine, or the 4" model with quad core arm, 12 MP camera, LTE. Another Keynote is coming up in a month where they're launching 4 more models. Maybe I'll wait.

[amazing]

Apple now has 3 price points--using old or old-ish models--but that does not qualify as diversity.

The free 3GS is targeted at the phone market segment that up till now has opted for the cellphone companies free phones. Think of the 3GS as an entry drug, just to get these plain vanilla cellphone folks into the smartphone market. This is a huge segment of the cellphone market, mucho revenue potential. At the same time, it provides data revenue to ATT which the free phones mostly didn't provide.

The 4 at $99 is targeted at those folks who've been entranced by the smartphones but always thought they were way too expensive or fragile or something they didn't need because they've got broadband at home--now they've got a status-symbol cellphone they can afford, a cool cellphone that's the same price as their last regular cellphone. ATT's gonna love it--capturing more data revenue.

The 4S is the uber-status-symbol. Faster, better camera, Siri. At the same time, it cancels one of the main objections to getting a CDMA iPhone--by opening the GSM overseas market to Verizon and Sprint customers. A huge market of loyal Verizon and Sprint customers now use their phones in the GSM world market (even if most of them don't even have a passport...)

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by amazing 

Apple now has 3 price points--.

Not true. Apple has three different phones at more than 3 price points.

--using old or old-ish models--but that does not qualify as diversity.

Perhaps someone will explain to me how making and selling 3 different phones (all made new, none EOL) at various different price points through 3 different (US) carriers "does not qualify as diversity."

[freudling]

Originally Posted by SierraDragon 

Not true. Apple has three different phones at more than 3 price points.



Perhaps someone will explain to me how making and selling 3 different phones (all made new, none EOL) at various different price points through 3 different (US) carriers "does not qualify as diversity."

The point is that there is 1 iPhone. They don't launch multiple new versions. Older phones are for people who are broke, which seems to be more and more people. Diversification: Apple would spit out different new models. But they don't.

The iPhone 4. A design that will have lasted 2.5 years as Apple's latest smartphone. The MacBook Pro over 3 years on the same design. No other manufacturer really does this. Apple tries to make perfect products and then runs with them for years.

[amazing]

Originally Posted by SierraDragon 

Not true. Apple has three different phones at more than 3 price points.



Perhaps someone will explain to me how making and selling 3 different phones (all made new, none EOL) at various different price points through 3 different (US) carriers "does not qualify as diversity."

Introducing a new iPhone and continuing to sell the previous generations is not diversity of product. It's a very savvy milking of the market, tapping the popularity of the iPhone brand name.

Having an iBook and a Powerbook, a MacBook and a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro, that's diversity in a product line.

If you had only one laptop, selling that same laptop thru the Apple Store, Best Buy, or Amazon, that's not diversity in a product line. It's savvy marketing.

If you have the iPhone 4S with all specs the exact same except the hard drive size, that's not 3 different products, that's one product with different memory configurations and 3 different prices.

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by freudling 

The point is that there is 1 iPhone.

You have GOT to be kidding. We clearly are not on the same planet, because when I go to the Apple Store I see three phones for sale, all very different, all manufactured within the last few months.

Originally Posted by freudling 

The MacBook Pro over 3 years on the same design. No other manufacturer really does this.

An electronics product is not simply defined as its visible exterior. Sandy Bridge Macs are a huge change from 2010 boxes.

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by amazing 

Introducing a new iPhone and continuing to sell the previous generations is not diversity of product.

Yes, it is. Apple is selling 3 phones. Period.

Originally Posted by amazing 

It's a very savvy milking of the market, tapping the popularity of the iPhone brand name.

Yes, that too.

Originally Posted by amazing 

If you had only one laptop, selling that same laptop thru the Apple Store, Best Buy, or Amazon, that's not diversity in a product line.

In reality those three are a GREAT example of marketing diversity. Apple's introduction of their own retail stores is a textbook example of diversification. Amazon is web sales which are hugely different, and Best Buy is classic box-store brick-and-mortar.

Originally Posted by amazing 

It's savvy marketing.

We agree on that.

Originally Posted by amazing 

If you have the iPhone 4S with all specs the exact same except the hard drive size, that's not 3 different products, that's one product with different memory configurations and 3 different prices.

I will give you that even though technically in marketing it is not true; any modification of the product or support is a change. But yours is a Chewbacca argument anyway, because there are three iPhones not one 4s.

-Allen

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by freudling 

No other manufacturer really does this.

No other manufacturer rides a design for years. Really?

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak 

No other manufacturer rides a design for years. Really?

Go find examples of tech companies who use the same design for 4-5 years, unchanged, with no other option.

Examples

-MacBook Pro 3 years and counting
-Mac Mini 5 years
-iPhone 4 design will be 2.5 years
-White iBook 5 years

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Go find examples of tech companies who use the same design for 4-5 years, unchanged, with no other option.

Examples

-MacBook Pro 3 years and counting
-Mac Mini 5 years
-iPhone 4 design will be 2.5 years
-White iBook 5 years

The Thinkpad design has changed very little over the decades.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak 

The Thinkpad design has changed very little over the decades.

Exactly. It's unlike 95% of the rest of the computer product lines out there, where designs are constantly changing.

[amazing]

Originally Posted by SierraDragon 

I will give you that even though technically in marketing it is not true; any modification of the product or support is a change. But yours is a Chewbacca argument anyway, because there are three iPhones not one 4s.

-Allen

Well, yes, Apple does have 3 iPhone models for sale.

But, just trying to get this straight, if Apple had:
1. The unibody MBP with only one processor but 3 different HD sizes
2. The previous Santa Rosa MBP, with only the smallest HD
3. A Powerbook with only the smallest HD

Would that really indicate product diversity?

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by amazing 

Well, yes, Apple does have 3 iPhone models for sale.

But, just trying to get this straight, if Apple had:
1. The unibody MBP with only one processor but 3 different HD sizes
2. The previous Santa Rosa MBP, with only the smallest HD
3. A Powerbook with only the smallest HD

Would that really indicate product diversity?

Frankly those examples kind of boggle my mind, what-iffing a different product line. The answer however is that if customers were willing enough to buy those boxes that Apple saw fit to do it yes, that would be diversity of the product line by definition. The reality is folks would not buy them, and there are myriad other reasons for Apple not to do what you describe, but it would be diversity.

Anyway the iPhones are not laptop computers, they are mobile phones, and there are three of them, each very different from the others. Apple is making three different models every day and folks are buying three different models every day.

-Allen

[ort888]

I think the market has reached a point where they can't ignore demand for a larger screen.

I think in the future, they will have two models, a smaller one with a 3.5" screen and then a larger 4"+ version.

The iPhone Nano will actually be the current 3.5" size, but thinner... and will probably continue to be the best selling version of the two.

I doubt they call it the Nano though.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by ort888 

I think the market has reached a point where they can't ignore demand for a larger screen.

Upon what do you base this idea that there is demand for a larger screen?

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Upon what do you base this idea that there is demand for a larger screen?

Android device sales and the commentary observed in threads running up to the iP4s release.

Not that a larger display area would necessarily be primary, but rather a logical extension of the product line at some point.

-Allen

[ort888]

That there are tons of phones with larger screens and they are selling well?

I don't think everyone wants a larger screen, but enough people do that they probably shouldn't ignore them.

I still think that the 3.5" model will be considered the standard model and the one with the larger screen would be the step up or whatever. I don't think they would release one phone and that one phone would have a larger screen. It would have to be two models.

They would probably keep the exact same pixel count for both models as well, because anything else would be very hard to pull off.


EDIT: I think this is an interesting enough and different enough topic to warrant it's own topic. I started a poll.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by SierraDragon 

Frankly those examples kind of boggle my mind, what-iffing a different product line. The answer however is that if customers were willing enough to buy those boxes that Apple saw fit to do it yes, that would be diversity of the product line by definition. The reality is folks would not buy them, and there are myriad other reasons for Apple not to do what you describe, but it would be diversity.

Anyway the iPhones are not laptop computers, they are mobile phones, and there are three of them, each very different from the others. Apple is making three different models every day and folks are buying three different models every day.

-Allen

You're doing it wrong.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by ort888 

That there are tons of phones with larger screens and they are selling well?

I don't think everyone wants a larger screen, but enough people do that they probably shouldn't ignore them.

I still think that the 3.5" model will be considered the standard model and the one with the larger screen would be the step up or whatever. I don't think they would release one phone and that one phone would have a larger screen. It would have to be two models.

They would probably keep the exact same pixel count for both models as well, because anything else would be very hard to pull off.


EDIT: I think this is an interesting enough and different enough topic to warrant it's own topic. I started a poll.

Everybody wants a bigger screen, as long as the device doesn't get that much bigger. If that prototype video I linked to earlier doesn't get you pumped for a 4" iPhone something is wrong with you.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by freudling 

Go find examples of tech companies who use the same design for 4-5 years, unchanged, with no other option.

Examples

-MacBook Pro 3 years and counting
-Mac Mini 5 years
-iPhone 4 design will be 2.5 years
-White iBook 5 years

Changing designs more often is not conducive to Apple's brand strategy. It's a similar mindset as luxury automakers.

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by freudling 

You're doing it wrong.

I'm not. Go find a graduate-level marketing text and look it up.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by SierraDragon 

I'm not. Go find a graduate-level marketing text and look it up.

Since when does Apple do anything according to the text books? Especially when it comes to product lines and marketing.

Do we actually know for sure that the 3GS is still being built? I wouldn't be surprised if they are just running down a large stockpile.

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Do we actually know for sure that the 3GS is still being built? I wouldn't be surprised if they are just running down a large stockpile.

Apple uses JIT manufacturing so would be very unlikely to have a large stockpile to run down. If the 3Gs or the 4 were EOL there would not be enough in the channel to justify the ongoing marketing of those two phones.

FWIW, this article today claims 3Gs and 4 phones are selling OK:

http://www.electronista.com/articles...devices.alive/

-Allen

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Since when does Apple do anything according to the text books? Especially when it comes to product lines and marketing.

Um, not discussing specifically Apple, just what the meaning of diversity is in products. Any firm, including Apple.

[amazing]

Here's a hilarious title for an article:

"What if Apple Threw an iPhone Party and Nobody Came?"
What if Apple Threw an iPhone Party and Nobody Came? (AAPL)

Unfortunately, the title is totally misleading--there's no humor whatsoever, and it's mostly talking about the author's disappointment (why do people put so much faith in rumors? There's a huge cottage industry out there generating iPhone rumors and people fall for the rumors every single time...)

Here's a better article and a better title:

The lunacy of the “iPhone 4S is a disappointment” crowd�|�Edible Apple

and my favorite sentence from the article:

"Think back a few years. Not too far back, but before the iPhone roamed the earth."

[amazing]

forum error

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by amazing 

Here's a hilarious title for an article:

"What if Apple Threw an iPhone Party and Nobody Came?"
What if Apple Threw an iPhone Party and Nobody Came? (AAPL)

Unfortunately, the title is totally misleading--there's no humor whatsoever, and it's mostly talking about the author's disappointment (why do people put so much faith in rumors? There's a huge cottage industry out there generating iPhone rumors and people fall for the rumors every single time...)

Here's a better article and a better title:

The lunacy of the “iPhone 4S is a disappointment” crowd�|�Edible Apple

and my favorite sentence from the article:

"Think back a few years. Not too far back, but before the iPhone roamed the earth."

How about thinking back just two years, to WWDC 2009?

Apple iPhone 3GS Disappoints at 2009 WWDC

[amazing]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

How about thinking back just two years, to WWDC 2009?

Apple iPhone 3GS Disappoints at 2009 WWDC

Good example: the analysts can just take their previous articles and substitute the current model number and add in snippets about how disappointing the current features are.

[turtle777]

And while we're at it: the iPhone 4S is a far more impressive technical improvement (compared to the previous model) than the iPhone 3GS was.

-t

[amazing]

Here's the best article comparing iPhone rates in the US:

Gadgetbox - iPhone 4S service plans: Dirty secrets, sweet deals