Читать книгу iPhone For Dummies - Bob LeVitus - Страница 31

IN THIS CHAPTER

Mastering multitouch

Multitasking with your iPhone

Spotlighting search

Keeping alert through notifications

If you were caught up in the initial iPhone frenzy of 2007, you may have plotted for months about how to land one. After all, the iPhone quickly emerged as the ultimate fashion phone. And the chic device hosted a bevy of cool features.

Owning the hippest and most-hyped handset on the planet came at a premium cost compared with rival devices. To snag the very first version, you may have saved your pennies or said, “The budget be damned.”

That’s ancient history now. Well past a decade later, the iPhone went mainstream and, through many versions, you got more bang for your buck. But you also had to part with more of those bucks. The tenth anniversary iPhone, known as the iPhone X, was the first to crack $1,000. Even now, a maxed-out iPhone 13 Pro Max with 1TB costs $1,599. Not cheap, of course, but plenty of bang too. If that’s too rich for your budget, a new second-generation iPhone SE, as of this writing, starts at $399.

We can list a bunch of prices here, but pricing for the wireless industry, and accordingly the iPhone, is in a state of flux. You used to be able to buy an iPhone for a subsidized and relatively low upfront price that was tied to a two-year contract with your carrier. Such contracts are passé. Instead, wireless companies and retailers push installment pricing options, in which you can choose to put little or no money down but are then obligated to pay for the device over typically a two- or three-year term. In some cases you lease the phone; in others, you buy the phone outright.

Of course you still must pay for cellular and data coverage and data from a wireless carrier. And taxes and fees are extra.

You may also get a nice trade-in deal on your existing phone, from Apple or other retailers.