I tend to agree with the general population out there, that the iPhone is going to be a huge hit, and people will indeed wait in line at stores to pick them up. With that in mind, I have been wondering if waiting in line is as far as those customers are going to get.

Sure, the phone is pricey, but no more than any new phone, especially a PDA style one. Yet has anyone priced out a service plan?

Daring Fireball has this to say about the iPhone funny price:

Is the hardware reliable? If the answer to those questions is yes, I don’t see how there’s any question that Apple is going to sell them as fast as they can make

Again, agreed.

Now, take the 30 or so people I know, who are all drooling over this phone, and take note that none one of them owns a “smartphone”, but a basic average cheap cell phone, and we run into a problem.

Average cell phone bill for those 30 people is about $30.00 to $40.00 a month. These are college kids, young adults, the non tech sector more or less. Those that have to pay out of pocket for the pleasure of getting into the Apple kit.

Take a base plan, add in the $40.00 to $50.00 unlimited data, and perhaps a text messaging plan, all of a sudden you hit the 100.00 a month mark, or even higher.

I can see all my friends in line, getting to the counter, and when they look at the plan price, there is just no way they are going to be able to afford this.

Of course, there is one hope. Apple managed to get the record industry to play by their rules, one can hope they are getting AT&T to do the same. The iPhone is more or less worthless without unlimited data. Sure, there is wifi, but that is not 100% prevalent, and there is no guarantee which built in apps will work with it.

I will get one, because my Treo already costs me that much. The Razr generation, well, I think they are in for a bit of a surprise.