Unlimited data, R.I.P.

Are variable pricing plans bad for business?

    In contrast, AT&T is taking the opposite approach with mobile, applying more pressure on subscribers by returning to a metered system. Pundits like Jarvis believe these new variable pricing schemes will only make users nervous, forcing them to question whether every web site visited, every application and update downloaded, and every video viewed is pushing them over the limit.

    AT&T claims that 2 GB covers 1 million one-page email messages (sans attachments) or 1,000 one-minute streaming video clips. That may sound impressive, but it's the real-world equivalent of 6 to 12 hours of Netflix movie streams – and with significantly downgraded picture quality at that.

    And Apple's promise -- that the iPad 3G would be the ultimate media consumption device -- has been effectively broken by the new price plans. As smartphone and tablet technology advances, these caps will continually be an issue.

    Developers will have to be more cognizant of these newly-minted data caps. Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta, developers of the Pulse News Reader, currently the second-most popular paid iPad app on iTunes, admitted the new data plans will force mobile developers to cut down on the size of their apps in an effort to streamline and optimize.

    Their RSS feed reader currently weighs in at 500 KB, a mere drop in the bucket compared to something like Wired magazine's app, which weighs in at a hefty 544 megabytes. But Kothari and Gupta say they'll be working towards decreasing the size of Pulse in future updates.

    In the end, the caps will make people use their devices less. "On the face of things, that's just a bad business model because less usage and less development means less business for well, everybody," Jarvis says.