How to get the best priced iPhone

Okay you are tired of your colleague constantly boasting of his new iPhone for two weeks in a row and finally decided to get the one for yourself as well. Good for you, bad for your colleague (he won't be the only one in your company) and... your credit card. So what are the options? How do you start?

1. Estimate your real needs (don't confuse with your wants!), decide what you want to use it for: always have tons of music with you, browse pics in the same amount, use numerous applications or just use it to make calls (in this case think twice: any cell phone will do for that!).

2. Now match your estimated needs with capabilities of 4 GB or 8 GB iPhone. Note that:
- 4 Gb iPhone allows you to have about a thousand songs.
- 8 Gb iPhone allows you to store about 2 times more songs and/or pics/movies.
Apart from the memory size, they say, there's no difference between the two.

3. So you have finally made your choice. Now comes the major question. Where to find the best price? Supposing you are progressive enough not to waste your time scenting out all near shops in search of the cheapest variant. You straightly go online. Everybody knows today that the web is the place for everything! Research the net (try social shopping and fun shopping sites) for more info, learn what people advise and find the best places offering the most reasonable prices.

4. Focus on group buy. That's probably the most forward-looking way of online shopping today. The point is that it's the most beneficial for both shoppers and sellers. A number of people united by the wish to buy the same product join the group and request discounts from a vendor. This allows them to buy at the wholesale price.

5. Remember that you can use your iPhone in the widest range of ways! Don't be narrow-minded and don't limit its capability with standard iPhone features. You can download lots of applications and make the device your unique multi-functional personalized mobile assistant. For you to learn more: the list of top ten iPhone applications is available here.

6. And last, but not least. Don't forget to be the first to tell your colleague that you are now about as cool as he is.:)

Now let me explain a bit why I think the group purchase strategy is the future of online shopping. Say, you are shopping for iPhone which is a rather expensive mobile device. As a single shopper you cannot ask a dealer for a wholesale price. Who do you think you are to ask that? But joining other same like you shoppers you have the power to dictate your terms to a seller who would be happy to offer you discount for the ability to sell a great number of a product at once.