UK gets the better end of the stick

[jcnyc]

Is it just me or does the UK get pampered like royalty while us Americans get the royal shaft when it comes to phones? I never really read the full articles regarding the s2's UK release, just the title to keep me informed. Today, I read one and fuond out that they get these phones for FREE with a 2 year contract??? AND their phone plans are cheaper than what we have here. Am I reading this correctly or hallucinating?? Ya they don't have LTE speeds but still, that is a huge difference not having to shell out $200-300 up front.

 

[MagicMarker]

It's because of the royal wedding innit.

 

[Gearu]

It's because America is still using the Imperial frequency bands.

 

[chocobosandwich]

Errr..you are missing a few details. Evo 4G (Desire HD elsewhere) first in US. Nexus One (Google phone, Google is US company), US first, sort of subsidized by T-mobile, but mainly sold unlocked in US. Nexus S (another Google phone), also first in US. On a couple of US carriers subsidized, or go straight unlocked. Motorola (US Company) Atrix, came out on AT&T in US first. Motorola also had the Droid, Droid X, Droid 2, etc, all US first. All iPhones release in US first, and stock reserved for US first. These are all flagship phones.

Some random unrelated things like video games and consoles always appear in the US first. Localization and other factors contribute to these game delays. You gotta work with multiple regions/countries in the EU, whereas the US is really just one big country with 300+ million people who can barely speak their own language, but that's a plus in this respect.

If you went back, say, 4-5 years ago, the US was definitely far behind. It didn't have 3G. It was nothing but Samsung flip phones, and a couple of WinMo phones that were chunky and no one wanted. The European (and Hong Kong grey market!!!!) scene had it all. 3G. Front-facing cameras. Stereo speakers. Fancy QVGA and even VGA displays. The cool phones Nokia use to spit out with the N series that could record whopping VGA and take 5 megapixel stills, and were sort of smartphones. Samsung and their super-advanced and anorexic sliders that could do the same, without the smartphone part. Sony Ericsson was king of imaging and had 8 megapixel phones and the walkman line. I'm ignoring Korea and Japan, cuz they kind of live in their own little world cellphone-wise.

Then, some people may dispute, the iPhone came along and the whole landscape changed. Google encoded their vids to mp4 for the iPhone, AT&T was like OMG I can't stream these stupid Youtube videos on EDGE and started shoring up their 3G and everyone else started pumping up their 3G and now we sort of have 4G. Google was also like man we better release that Google Phone we've been working on or Apple will eat all the pie so the G1 popped up and then Android and Samsung was like OMG we better jump in and stop playing around with touchscreen dumbphones and got the Galaxy S out and then said we needz more SuperAMOLED better rob it from the low-tier Bada emerging market phone cuz it's for poor people anyhoo and so they cram everything into the SGS2 and say yeehaw! it is EXTREME. Oh right, they are releasing it in the UK first. But really, with 4G and the US market being the larget consumer thus and Google is here, the US is ahead in a lot of ways.

 

[Beards]

Does it really matter Guys who is ahead and who is behind.... after all we are all on the same Planet.

 

[chocobosandwich]

But I want my fone FIRST!




I import anyhoo.

 

[Beards]

But I want my fone FIRST!




I import anyhoo.

Well I wish you well and good luck in getting one soon.

Me on the other hand.... at 58yrs young I've learned that patience brings things along at a much quicker pace.

I let my theatre staff do all the running around these days.
The only time I get anxious and excited is when knowing my granddaughter is coming round to see her grandmother and myself.

 

[chocobosandwich]

Nothing wrong with getting excited. Just not deleteriously so? I used a big word. The internet is a horrible place for people with lives. Shoo SHOO!

 

[Quboid]

Deleteriously? Or deliriously?

Ahh the foibles of old age. I know that upgrading my Desire to an SGS2 is nothing compared parenthood, or to the situations in Syria or Libya, but dammit, it is exciting to me. That is a measure of how sad my life is, yes, but boo to you!

 

[chocobosandwich]

How DARE you question my phone obsession! It is as god intended.

 

[jcnyc]

Still doesn't explain why the damn english don't have to pay for a ****ing phone and we americans get shafted by a big one dishing out 2-300 bucks and pay more for data plans. Guarentee if the charge is 300, this phone will be at least 300 too.

 

[Gearu]

Australia has high prices too, we just don't have that strange plan+upfront chargething, the SGS2 will probably be $1200 outright when it comes out here.

Amazing, the LG Renoir/KC910 was $1057 on release, two and a half years later and it's junk. (and it could only run the very lightweight apps and games, had 256k colorscreen, no OS, slowish GPS).

 

[Beards]

Still doesn't explain why the damn english don't have to pay for a ****ing phone and we americans get shafted by a big one dishing out 2-300 bucks and pay more for data plans. Guarentee if the charge is 300, this phone will be at least 300 too.

Oh, so we are the "Damn English" are we!

 

[chocobosandwich]

Shhh. You are making Americans look bad. Super spoiled and such. We already are the world's most nated nation.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they have unlimited data plans over yonder.

 

[Beards]

Shhh. You are making Americans look bad. Super spoiled and such. We already are the world's most nated nation.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they have unlimited data plans over yonder.

It is not Unlimited per-se choco but more 'controlled'.
It basically depends on the kind of tariff you sign up to in the UK.
I have a T-Mobile SIM only deal.
With this deal I get Emails which are true unlimited.
Browsing is at full speed for my first 2GB monthly and after that the service is throttled back.
Outside of data my voice is 1000 mins and Texts unlimited.
This costs me

 

[matt310]

Still doesn't explain why the damn english don't have to pay for a ****ing phone and we americans get shafted by a big one dishing out 2-300 bucks and pay more for data plans. Guarentee if the charge is 300, this phone will be at least 300 too.

^Wow. Please know this DB obviously doesn't speak for the whole of the American people. But that kind of attitude is exactly why I find myself having to defend Americans when I travel abroad. We don't *all* have our hands out, expecting something for nothing.

Try paying for gasoline in the UK, or perhaps look up what VAT is and then continue complaining about price inequalities.

 

[chocobosandwich]

@Beards I meant the European plans are not unlimited too. Americans have (or use to) all-you-can-eat buffets of voice, data, and messaging for relatively cheap. Than they started capping everything. Maybe my thinking is a couple of years off, but I do remember Euro plans being more expensive and a la carte.

For those complaining about prices, the Motorola Atrix can be had for $30 at Best Buy. Get it while its hot!

 

[Beards]

@Beards I meant the European plans are not unlimited too. Americans have (or use to) all-you-can-eat buffets of voice, data, and messaging for relatively cheap. Than they started capping everything. Maybe my thinking is a couple of years off, but I do remember Euro plans being more expensive and a la carte.

For those complaining about prices, the Motorola Atrix can be had for $30 at Best Buy. Get it while its hot!

Got it... Thanks Mate.

 

[jcnyc]

I'm not expecting things to be handed to me but clearly I'm not upset at the english I could raelly care less what they get but it leaves me thinking why they can offer free high end phones and our carriers charge us 2-300. It's as if they don't make any money compared to the english carriers and I know that isn't true if you just look at VZW and ATT's earnings last week. We've all become accustomed to the fact that paying 200 bucks minimum for a phone is the normal thing so we dont' think even think abotu it anymore

 

[runamonk]

Is it just me or does the UK get pampered like royalty while us Americans get the royal shaft when it comes to phones? I never really read the full articles regarding the s2's UK release, just the title to keep me informed. Today, I read one and fuond out that they get these phones for FREE with a 2 year contract??? AND their phone plans are cheaper than what we have here. Am I reading this correctly or hallucinating?? Ya they don't have LTE speeds but still, that is a huge difference not having to shell out $200-300 up front.

I'm an american living in the UK and I tell you, you're crazy. The UK is expensive and the customer service is horrible. It's simply a case of the grass is always greener and in reality it's not!

They limit everything, unlimited is never unlimited. It's all fair use crap. Don't get me started on broadband here. Sure you can get umlimited internet for 20 pounds a month (20 pounds = 35 dollars), but's horrible DSL that if you're lucky has a throughput of 1.5 - 2.5mbps. I miss my comcast!

When was the last time you paid a TV tax? You need to buy a tv license here to have a tv in your home, seriously. Over 100 pounds a year is spent on this stupid thing.

 

[MagicMarker]

i'm an american living in the uk and i tell you, you're crazy. The uk is expensive and the customer service is horrible. It's simply a case of the grass is always greener and in reality it's not!

They limit everything, unlimited is never unlimited. It's all fair use crap. Don't get me started on broadband here. Sure you can get umlimited internet for 20 pounds a month (20 pounds = 35 dollars), but's horrible dsl that if you're lucky has a throughput of 1.5 - 2.5mbps. I miss my comcast!

When was the last time you paid a tv tax? You need to buy a tv license here to have a tv in your home, seriously. Over 100 pounds a year is spent on this stupid thing.

lol

 

[Beards]

I'm an american living in the UK and I tell you, you're crazy. The UK is expensive and the customer service is horrible. It's simply a case of the grass is always greener and in reality it's not!

They limit everything, unlimited is never unlimited. It's all fair use crap. Don't get me started on broadband here. Sure you can get umlimited internet for 20 pounds a month (20 pounds = 35 dollars), but's horrible DSL that if you're lucky has a throughput of 1.5 - 2.5mbps. I miss my comcast!

When was the last time you paid a TV tax? You need to buy a tv license here to have a tv in your home, seriously. Over 100 pounds a year is spent on this stupid thing.

It is always a case where other countries believe they are getting the bad side of a flipped coin.
In reality as you point out, when you actually try what the other country is getting it is not as rosy and straightforward as it all seems.

I am lucky with my broadband in that a have a fibre optic broadband and with SIM only my monthly contract is quite small for what I get but the second I leave the country or add something to the contract it all blows out of proportion.
The UK in many respects gets hit in taxation on a lot of issues far greater than our cousins.
Fuel is astronomical as is house prices and everything associated be that insurances, services etc.

None of us will ever be on the good side of payments, we each have problems our governments hit us with.
UK gets hit twice.... once with our own government and again with Eurocrap's bureaucrats telling us what to do.

 

[runamonk]

It is always a case where other countries believe they are getting the bad side of a flipped coin.
In reality as you point out, when you actually try what the other country is getting it is not as rosy and straightforward as it all seems.

I am lucky with my broadband in that a have a fibre optic broadband and with SIM only my monthly contract is quite small for what I get but the second I leave the country or add something to the contract it all blows out of proportion.
The UK in many respects gets hit in taxation on a lot of issues far greater than our cousins.
Fuel is astronomical as is house prices and everything associated be that insurances, services etc.

None of us will ever be on the good side of payments, we each have problems our governments hit us with.
UK gets hit twice.... once with our own government and again with Eurocrap's bureaucrats telling us what to do.

Yeah I am doing sim only for my phone as well. It works out pretty cheap but I did pay 400 pounds up front for my phone hehe.

Fuel here is really high, funny you should mention that. The other day the news actually spent a few minutes talking about real issues instead of monarchy related stuff and they stated that it's upwards of 60% of the cost of fuel here in the UK is the tax, rather than the cost to import it. Awesome!

It's amazing what they get away with here. Right now kids are bitching and moaning about how much their college courses are going to actually cost them; they have no clue what's really going on with everything around them and their little drug addled world.

 

[Beards]

Yeah I am doing sim only for my phone as well. It works out pretty cheap but I did pay 400 pounds up front for my phone hehe.

Fuel here is really high, funny you should mention that. The other day the news actually spent a few minutes talking about real issues instead of monarchy related stuff and they stated that it's upwards of 60% of the cost of fuel here in the UK is the tax, rather than the cost to import it. Awesome!

It's amazing what they get away with here. Right now kids are bitching and moaning about how much their college courses are going to actually cost them; they have no clue what's really going on with everything around them and their little drug addled world.

Before we get totally wayyyy off topic don't get me started on our younger generation.
Maybe it is because as a 58 year young surgeon I value life and have a great understanding of what it offers.
However, if you want something you have to earn it.
Earn comes in many flavours ~ be that respect, understanding, commitment, value and obviously money.

Okay.... that's me done and dusted and back on topic.

 

[runamonk]

Before we get totally wayyyy off topic don't get me started on our younger generation.
Maybe it is because as a 58 year young surgeon I value life and have a great understanding of what it offers.
However, if you want something you have to earn it.
Earn comes in many flavours ~ be that respect, understanding, commitment, value and obviously money.

Okay.... that's me done and dusted and back on topic.

Agreed! Now I'll slowly back out and let the topic get back on track, sorry for the derail haha.