What you can buy for the price of an iPhone
By Will Greenwald
The iPhone hits stores this Friday, and everyone's pretty excited about it. Apple fans are already starting to line up at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store here in New York, and it's only Tuesday. It's no small wonder--the iPhone is shaping up to be an impressive piece of tech that can play MP3s and videos, browse the Web, work as a GPS, and even make phone calls.
Unfortunately, the price seems pretty steep--US$500 for the 4GB version or US$600 for the 8GB version, even with a contract from AT&T Wireless. The iPhone might be able to do a ton of different things, but there's still a whole lot you can buy with the cash you're dropping on it. Here's a look at some of the things you could buy for the price of a 8GB iPhone:
An 80GB and a 30GB iPod
An 8GB, and a 4GB, and a 2GB iPod nano
Seven iPod Shuffles with US$40 left over
A Playstation 3
A Nintendo Wii, and a Xbox 360 Core System, and a year of Xbox Live Gold
An Xbox 360 Premium, and a year of Xbox Live Gold, and a Xbox 360 media remote, and a Nintendo DS Lite
A Nikon D40 digital SLR with a 18mm-to-55mm lens
A Panasonic DMR-EH75V DVD recorder/80GB DVR/VCR deck and a Panasonic SC-HT40 home theater in a box
That's a lot of stuff you can get for the price of one iPhone. Still, it might be the greatest phone ever and be worth the cost. Perhaps the next version or update of the iPhone will be a bit more affordable, with even more features. The iPods were pretty darn expensive when they started out; the first-generation iPods cost US$400 for 5GB of music and a monochrome screen. Now you can get a 30GB iPod that can play video for a little more than half that. Hopefully, time will bring the price of the iPhone (and the prices of everything else in the list) down.
By Caroline McCarthy
Earlier today, Will Greenwald outlined for all of you the sorts of electronics you could buy for the same price as an iPhone--iPods, gaming consoles, etc. But he missed a lot of really cool stuff, unfortunately. So, esteemed readers, here's what you can really buy for the price of an iPhone.
One USB rocket launcher (US$40); 20 packs of chocolate covered espresso beans (US$200); one pair of Reef flip-flops with built-in bottle openers (US$42); 72 packs of strawberry Jell-O for the purpose of encasing your co-workers' office supplies (US$90); 8 large meat-lovers' pizzas (~US$100); two Marshmallow Shooter guns (~US$50); and the rest left over to pay the barber's bill when you ask for "the Jim Halpert haircut."
Two 2.1m suits of armor from KingOfSwords.com.
240 270g bags of Cheetos.
One one-way JetBlue ticket from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Mexican spring break hub of Cancun, Mexico (US$399); five handles of Jose Cuervo Especial (~US$100); one case of Corona Extra (~US$60); one tube of Neutrogena SPF 55 sunscreen for that 'computer science white' skin tone (US$12); a straw cowboy hat from Target (US$13); and US$25 worth of salt and limes.
One pair of Christian Louboutin 'Kelly Strass' pumps from Bluefly.com, and US$16 to cover express shipping so you can wear them out this weekend.
13.6kg pounds of Sweet Factory jelly beans (~US$180); 200 Giant Pixy Stix (~US$200); 20 pounds of Blue Raspberry Gummy Rings (US$160); a motion-activated talking pinata (~US$30), and US$30 to go toward your dental bill.
One 1992 Volvo 740 thanks to Craigslist: Apparently, it has two dents but "runs great."
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