$12.5K SafeCell App for iOS Most Expensive Yet

one of the most useless things I've heard of....

I'll buy a plane first KTHXBAI

So wait, you pay for the $12,500 THEN get charged an additional fee?

You're telling me, they can't add that fee into the $12,500 price tag?

IMO, this is a very fair price for what they've put together. Private mobile phone systems for aircraft are insane expensive. And when you think about it, they've probably got quite a bit invested. Probably similar to what other large software programs have, except instead of a user base of a few hundred thousand that others would see with the same budget, they'll only have a few thousand. It's priced accordingly.

Maybe not useful for you, but you're looking at it entirely wrong. Perhaps you have a 401k that's partially invested in a company that picks this technology up. I'm sure with that in mind that you'd be more than happy to hear that they're able to cut costs on on board cellphone networks by a few hundred thousand dollars per plane.

OK now whey not use a Cellphone normally, Im a pilot and I can tell you it does not interfere with the instruments, the reason why you cant use cellphones on planes is because if you are talking and you go out of your providers Call area the call keeps going and you dont have to pay for it, Try it, I flew from australia to Tokyo about 5 months ago and NEVER got charged for the call

I bet you that if that app was on android or WM7 it wouldn't cost 12.5k

Considering how expensive satellite phone services are..... No.

It costs money to run the sat systems, even if they have to be robust enough to stay up for a number of years without sending an AT&T truck into Low orbit.

Though if I was a fortune 500 executive, I might think this a steal instead of spending half a million. I'd still be willing to pay for my phone calls.

I don't see where it deserves a $12,500 when all it uses is Bluetooth?

Seems like a good high tech current solution to a traditionally expensive legacy hardware based solution!

I'm sure many aircraft owners will be happy to pay for this.

I was talking about the additional fee for the iPhone.

Considering Apple is only Reselling the app, they're not the people who you're buying the app from. They're just a "Storefront".

So the people who you're buying the App from aren't going to suddenly pay your Iphone bill.

Its like asking Sears to pay your gas bill because they sold you a $5000 Gas range stove .

Then you should take an economics class. Supply and demand. If the competition is selling for almost 30 times your price, it will sell, until someone else makes one and sells it for less. You do have to pay your programmers though and someone had to figure out how to tap in to the system. Innovation and efficiency should be rewarded in order to encourage it.

If it was on android it would be free but ad supported

The licensing fees alone to talk to Sat Phone systems are likely pretty pricey.

just use the mobile no need for this BS app, 9/11 tuaght us that mobile phones work on Aircraft without crashing, opps

Im going to try this out in one of my 9 jets today... Ill get back to you!

if the only market that has a use for this is people that own a private jet, i guess they can charge whatever they want for the app for their i-toy-phone. Also, WTF is that guy in that pic doing holding a brick to his head?? You have to admit, you look pretty stupid talking into that big ass thing!

"Hopefully one day Apple will see the light and provide full open access to Bluetooth
," he said.

Apple will never provide full open access to anything Apple makes ever.

Compared to many things in the aviation industry, this is cheap.
M father works at a airport, and to replace the on board navigation computer in his employer's private jet, it cost $40,000. It was a Pentium 3 which could dual boot to Windows XP and the navigation OS, and this was 2 years ago.

You should know that cell phone coverage vanishes as soon as you are a few thousand feets higher than the terrain. Your call will also be dropped if you move to another country (requires your phone to register to another provider when changing area).
And for most pilots, the VHF radio is still a useful instrument that behaves very badly when you press the PTT button in the cockpit while in close proximity of a cell phone struggling to find his network. ATC's don't like that annoying sound in the transmissions either and they will tell you.
I'll never climb in an aircraft with you as a pilot !

Redonkeylous, haha.

This is true. Although I would expect Apple to sell very few copies of this app but, when they do, they will collect a cool $3750 on every one.

probably bluetooth 2.0 too

Well, considering a Iphone unlimited voice and data plan can cost you upwards of $1300-$1400 per year, that would be a good chunk of that money, even if they only paid for one year and not the full two year contract. I figure arranging Apple to pay for it and still have the owner be able to own and control the phone some would be even more expensive to set up and manage just because it is not so easy simple. Especially when its AT&T. It would still cost some if they only sent a "rebate check" but that would have to be multiple (more expensive) or one big one at the end of the contract (too long).

Again, that is not money used to pay someone's Iphone bill, its to pay App store costs, the testers, site maintenance, bandwidth, advertising, etc... Unless you are deep inside Apple's books and do the real nitty gritty accounting (not the armchair accounting people on forums love to do), there is no way you can be certain if there is much margin to do anything like that.

Considering the limited sales of this application, I could believe the higher cost and apple's larger cut might be justified just because of the limited sales of it. If scrutiny, testing, etc of an application is mostly a set cost, I'd say the ROI on this app will be far less than on the Fart App just because they will sell so many more of the cheaper one.

Also, another thing to consider: after base costs a company wants to design and make something new later too, the money they make from department X can be used to create something neat and new in Department Y. So most of the profit Apple sees from this app might already be spoken for. New products don't design and test themselves.

Either way, I still say the most important point is: What Multi-Million dollar executive is going to bother with the hastle of rebates or Apple paying for his Iphone service when they spend more on the guy who washes their private jet?

Wow rich people can be retards. What call can be that important that it can't wait a few hours? If you had a business deal that important about to break you would not be on a plane or you would be in an office waiting for the call,

People in this day and age have lost ability to use common sense and make decisions with hand holding. I see all these women in grocery stores glued to the phone asking if they should be buy this or that. Would they be paralyzed without a phone or may be just spend less?

Any important legitimate deal can wait those that can't are usually scams. A phone on a jet is like a gold plated toilet seat. Looks pretty is functional but is entirely and utterly unnecessary unless you are the president of the Us and need to nuke someone but then there are radios available for that.