Google LG Nexus 4 at T-Mobile $50 AR with 2yr contract

Quote from threeclaws : If my kid wrecked a decent phone they wouldn't get a replacement, my dad gave me my first cellphone when I was 12, 20yrs ago, and all through middle school and high school I kept that phone in one piece.

If and when you really have kids, the first thing you will realize is that "what was good for my dad and me is good enough for me and my kid" has never worked in the history of mankind. Not breaking phones is not passed through genes. And why the kids of today need a phone is very different from what we needed them for.

Quote : Assuming you are talking a single line unlimited plan (the cheapest being sprints $80/mo + tax plan) then you can save over $850 over 2 yrs with a similar plan from ST, so there aren't going to be many phones that surpass that price (not the s3/note2/iphone5.)

First, there is no similar plan from ST or anybody pre-paid that is comparable to a post paid because of the coverage and roaming issues. If you say as a single line where those differences do not matter for your personal requirements, the pre-paid saves money then I am wholly in agreement with you but there are so many scenarios where it doesn't and so I don't get the need to make the case that pre-paid or non contract is the best model for everybody.

Quote : Contracts suck, as a whole the US is finally moving to a non-subsidized model,

You may turn out to be right but I personally think that is not going to happen in the US. Only T Mobile is thinking of doing that, no other major carrier will follow as long as there are people who want the latest greatest thing.

Quote : I don't see the problem with people running the numbers and seeing what comes out best for them.

Absolutely. On that I am in complete agreement with you and have never made a statement that contracts or post paid is for everybody and yet the pre-paid cult insists on saying otherwise as if they have found religion. Why?

Quote : Tracfone (net10/straight talk/simple mobile/etc.) has been around for 17yrs, they have 20+ million customers...they aren't going anywhere.

As long as they cater to the voice and text mostly crowd without much impact on the data networks, carriers will tolerate them. But Tracfone caters to such people. But It makes no sense to say that Tracfone will replace the carrier they ride on because the economics don't work. What the carriers are doing is to provide their own pre-paid services to make people like Tracfone unnecessary. It is an uneasy symbiosis. The telecom area is filled with dead MVNOs, so there is a survivor bias.

Quote : The $30 tmo plan that mostly places calls amongst family members would be perfect if all the members have smartphone, you can go with any number of VOIP services to "dial" people within that circle.

Wrong. there is no free tmobile to tmobile minutes on that plan. Family plans post paid on T Mobile is much cheaper unless you are OK with just 100 minutes per person with no equalizing amongst them. Oh please VoIP. This is when arguments become theoretical and religious. I could equally make a case that nobody needs a smartphone with that kind of logic.

Quote : Nobody has said that a pre paid plan works for everybody, for example the people with the 5 line tmo family plan aren't going to do any better on prepaid. The move to pre paid is good for everybody though, it forces the carriers to compete on price and not "features" which means we end up with cheap dumb pipes (like electricity, water, gas and it's starting with cableco/telco.)

The so called move to prepaid is wishful thinking especially in the US as long as there are spectrum licenses.They will all co-exist in a symbiotic relationship. MVNOs with pre-paid are justified by marginal income requirements of the carriers that own the frequency licenses and so can never pressure them to change to a different model. Do not confuse reality with what you hope would happen. By definition, MVNOs cannot survive with a business model that displaces too much of the underlying carriers. They exist at their discretion for marginal revenue.