Moto c975 -0.01p at Amazon.co.uk

[3GScottishUser]

It's true......

You get the Motorola c975 including a £30 credit (Valid 60 days) for £29.99 with free delivery from amazon.co.uk. so Amazon actually give you 1p to accept the Moto (so they should!!)

Is this the UK's first disposable mobile phone?

At £29.99 why bother to top-up??? Just chuck it away and get a new one!!!

[Ben]

At £29.99 why bother to top-up??? Just chuck it away and get a new one!!!
Oh my god. That's insane. I'm not a staunch environmentalist but will somebody think of the planet!

[Hands0n]

I was just about to order one for the Father in-law - the intention being to unlock it and pop his O2 2G SIM to replace the ageing handset that he is using. But, it occurred to me, if they've epoxied in the 3 USIM I'm going to be wasting my time. 3's no good to him as he travels abroad a bit and the last two places he went 3 don't have reciprocal arrangements.

[3GScottishUser]

Bearing in mind you have to buy the £30 credit you could shop around and see what there is elsewhere. The Moto V975 (Clamshell) is on Vodafone's site at £50 as a refurb. Worth a thought?

[Hands0n]

Probably, it has to be something big and clunky, those 84-yr old eyes of his and fingers are not quite so nimble. The old Desert Rat is blown away with mobile technology, cant quite get his head around it. I gotta take it easy on him :) lol.

If I could only be sure the USIM is not glued in I'd give the c975 a go - but I cant help feeling that 3 will be guarding against such "box breaking" intentions given their recent news.

[3GScottishUser]

The c975 is quite costly to unlock. You have to buy a cable and get a code via Morotola's own servers. Not that easy and about £30 is the best price I can find. Add that to the cost of the credit when you buy it and you are in 'decent' handset territory.

Have a look at the refurbs available on Orange and Vodafone for some good bargains.

[Hands0n]

I have the unlock kit for almost all Moto and the c975 is one of those that I can do easily. But I'm put off by the prospect of it turning up with the USIM epoxied in to the chassis so I've given up on the idea and plumped for getting the old fella a 2G Moto C139 from CPW for £29.

These 3G giveaways do not, I feel, do 3 any real favours - this could be the NEC e616 all over again - how many of those found their way into the wastbasket? You don't see the masses walking around with one of those pressed to their ears. Its not as if folk really need to go far among their friends and associates to get a few mins of hands on a 3G phone these days, and Threepay/Wepay is not competitive with many of the other PAYG tariffs (i.e. who can possibly beat Voda's PAYT with STC if you can limit yourself to off peak/weekend?).

[3GScottishUser]

It's really quite hard for 3 with handsets like the motorola c975 and the ZTE. Both of them look and feel dated and are not very attractive really. I bet most youngsters would not be interested even at £30. The vast majority of younger folks are very fashion concious and phones are part of their 'gear' nowadays. Samsungs, Walkmans and Razr's are todays models of choice and even some of the Lobster and VK's have the style and appearance good enough to make them favoured by younger pre-pay users.

The Motorola c975, the Amoi MOS-1 and the ZTE are another batch cheapies which I have to agree are unlikely to have much in the way of lasting appeal. The ticket price looks good and I suppose if one needed a cheap replacement any of those could be a consideration but none are objects of desire and most folks will (as with the NEC e313 and e616's) move on to other devices as soon as their budget allows.

One problem with a price like the above on the Motorola is that it is just too good to be true. Its become so cheap folks wonder 'what's wrong with it?' and that could be a big problem in terms of shifting numbers.

One has to wonder why 3 UK have chosen to pitch for this end of the pre-pay market? Any ideas?