Wave Of The Future? LG Thrive First Pre-Paid Droid Smartphone (T)

Could this be a way for consumers to fight rising smartphone and data costs? AT&T T, along with LG, have launched the LG Thrive, the first Droid available under AT&T's prepaid plan. The phone, which will retail for $179.99, will have a 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-FI, HSDPA and 160 MB of memory expandable via SD memory cards up to 32 GB. The operating system on the Thrive is Android 2.2. The devil is in the details though, as the price is what will ultimately make it worth it for consumers to have a prepaid phone, or go with a contract. It will cost users 10 cents per minute or $2 per day for an unlimited plan to talk and text on the phone. The data prices are really the driver her: $5 for 10 MB, $15 for 10 MB as well as $25 for 500 MB. As more and more consumers go towards smartphones, data usage will increase, and this will inevitably drive up prices, as data is incredibly taxing on a network. If consumers increasingly see prepaid options as an option to combat an ever rising cell phone bill, then perhaps LG and AT&T have a hit on their hands. Or, it could just be another option in the smorgasbord of options for consumers. Only time will tell here.