Cricket/Leap Wireless Reports iPhone Sales Weaker Than Expected

JoeIsInTheCloud said:

Give the proles filet mignon and they'll demand Burger King. This is the crowd that's happy with $49 Android phones running Froyo.

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Oh please. The idea that somehow the iPhone is the toy of the elite is total crap. It's the most common phone I see, in the hands of everyone from schoolkids to technophobe grandparents to street kids who think they are part of G-Unit.

Especially since most contract plans give away the 4 for free now.

Which would you rather have?

iPhone on Verizon, Sprint or AT&T

iPhone on Cricket

Hard decision there.

DavidFulero said:

Lol, it's a famous, expensive phone, on a small regional carrier that (let's face it) exists to service people with an income level too low to require or afford a national service plan with a major carrier. We are surprised by this?

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You think income level will REALLY stop people from spending 200 on a phone? People who live under the poverty line are buying escalades and Lv purses.

And there's already a major carrier for low income people.....it's called Sprint.

iGrip said:

The Nexus 4 starts at $299. The times, they are a'changing.

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Right and Google loses money on every unit. What is your point? Apple is not in the advertising business.

GuitarDTO said:

the Lumia's are somewhat interesting

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I hate to say this about a Windows product, but yup.

Give the proles filet mignon and they'll demand Burger King. This is the crowd that's happy with $49 Android phones running Froyo.

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If you had filet mignons over the last four weeks every day, no, you won't demand a Whooper, because you can't even look at beef anymore. But a bucket of hot wings. With coleslaw. And mashed potatoes with gravy. And corn on the cob. And biscuits. And a physician.
Either that, or start serving champagne and caviar.

Those Froyo devices for $49 are rather a cup from the local soup kitchen than a Whopper, though. 50MB of application data and you can't move preinstalled apps or their data to the SD, so you end up constantly resetting app data, and if you fail to do that right on time, you'll have to reset the whole phone because it won't boot anymore. They're serious crap.

uknowimright said:

The 4S is $399 and right now $349 with a mail in rebate
The 5 is $499 and right now $449 with a mail in rebate (can't buy online)
The GS3 is $549 but they are offering $50 instant off + $20 web discount + $100 mail in rebate

using zip code 73301 to get prices

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Thanks!

I was using press releases since I could not search prices in my area. Thanks for the information.

You gotta wonder why they have a limited roll out.

Rocketman said:

I pay a ridiculous $140 per month for two phones, but when I got them if I had to pay $1600 up front and $90 per month for service, it would not have seemed like a good deal to me.

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Yikes. I'm paying $80 for two phones. Yay, T-Mobile monthly 4G.

Honestly the existence of android can be explained by one word, greed. iPhones are clearly the superior products in almost every aspect. For example the iPhone 5 costs $200 to make and ship, while it is sold for $650. To add insult to injury, older models are discounted only by $100 after a year. The "almost 3 year old" iPhone 4 still costs $450 off contract. Hypothetically speaking, if Apple sold the iPhone 5 for "free" on contract ($450 off contract) the sales would more than double and margins would not be an issue. You make more just because of the sheer volume of sales. Or here is the most ideal solution. Discount older iPhones by $200 every year. That way the 2-3 year old phone can be the prepaid phone for $250. No need to waste money on R/D for a budget iPhone. $250 may sound too cheap but let's not forget taxes and tariffs around the world that add about 50-100% to the price of foreign goods.

ghost187 said:

Honestly the existence of android can be explained by one word, greed. iPhones are clearly the superior products in almost every aspect. For example the iPhone 5 costs $200 to make and ship, while it is sold for $650. To add insult to injury, older models are discounted only by $100 after a year. The "almost 3 year old" iPhone 4 still costs $450 off contract. Hypothetically speaking, if Apple sold the iPhone 5 for "free" on contract ($450 off contract) the sales would more than double and margins would not be an issue. You make more just because of the sheer volume of sales. Or here is the most ideal solution. Discount older iPhones by $200 every year. That way the 2-3 year old phone can be the prepaid phone for $250. No need to waste money on R/D for a budget iPhone. $250 may sound too cheap but let's not forget taxes and tariffs around the world that add about 50-100% to the price of foreign goods.

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Yes, but you'd have to make war to China first, then abolish the 'One child only' policy, ban any means of birth control and wait 13 years to do that. And then explain to the world that it was necessary to make the iPhone free on a contract.

Or ship it out in kits to build it yourself.

ghost187 said:

Honestly the existence of android can be explained by one word, greed. iPhones are clearly the superior products in almost every aspect.

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1. Apple is not in this to make money? (i.e., Greed)

2. This happens in every industry, all the time, with any disrupting technology. Company A comes out with Product A that takes the market by storm. Company B-Z jumps in on the fun and the competition begins. Of course it's driven by money, what else would it be?

3. Many people disagree with you now about iPhones being the clearly superior product. This may have been true in the past, but the competition has a lot to offer now. Open your eyes and don't be blinded.

Rocketman said:

I pay a ridiculous $140 per month for two phones, but when I got them if I had to pay $1600 up front and $90 per month for service, it would not have seemed like a good deal to me.

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Same here... about $220 for 3 iPhones which includes "protection".

If my kids break another one I'm going to duct tape an iPod Touch to a Samsung flip phone and save a fortune.

Giuly said:

Yes, but you'd have to make war to China first, then abolish the 'One child only' policy, ban any means of birth control and wait 13 years to do that.

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I am not sure how your comment has anything to do with yours

GuitarDTO said:

I like my iPhone 5...BUT. It is starting to feel stale. Meanwhile, Samsung keeps pushing the envelope with the Galaxy series (Note, S3)....the Lumia's are somewhat interesting, and I'm also curious to check out what the new Blackberry has to offer. I'm not surprised by this type of news, there is a lot of great competition out there now, and we as consumers (not fanboys) all benefit.

EDIT: and yes, who the F is cricket?

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Fanboys benefit too whether they like to admit it or not. When Apple is driven to innovate great things happen. When Apple is on top of the world they become stale. The iDevice craze is just Macintosh 2.0. Apple stopped innovating then, fell down a slope, then exploding with great new products.

Service!

That is kind of expected. Most on prepaid aren't willing to pay $500+ for a phone.

Who??

el-John-o said:

Fanboys benefit too whether they like to admit it or not. When Apple is driven to innovate great things happen. When Apple is on top of the world they become stale. The iDevice craze is just Macintosh 2.0. Apple stopped innovating then, fell down a slope, then exploding with great new products.

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Agreed, although in this case I'm not sure how much more innovation there is to be had with phones, other than just expanding on consumers personal preferences? Apple is no doubt working hard on coming out with the next "iPhone" type disruption in other industries, but those types of shifts don't happen too often. I think Apple will continue to sell phones well, but the competition will also do well and will take market share away from Apple, but they'll still always have a nice chunk of the market.

I'm more curious to know what will happen when phones have the power of running full blown PC/Mac applications and what the setup/interface to do that will be. Imagine all your professional type apps on your mobile device with you at all times. I believe that's when we'll see larger innovations again in the mobile market, when the computing power gets to that point. Could be sooner rather than later but who knows.

GuitarDTO said:

1. Apple is not in this to make money? (i.e., Greed)

2. This happens in every industry, all the time, with any disrupting technology. Company A comes out with Product A that takes the market by storm. Company B-Z jumps in on the fun and the competition begins. Of course it's driven by money, what else would it be?

3. Many people disagree with you now about iPhones being the clearly superior product. This may have been true in the past, but the competition has a lot to offer now. Open your eyes and don't be blinded.

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It is projected that there will be 1 Billion Android devices sold this year. I know for a fact Apple cannot sell third of that this year. Well all I am saying is they would actually make more money selling more phones at a cheaper price.

Also, people prefer iPhones to Androids by a landslide if the battle grounds are fair. Just look at AT&T and Verizon (the home of droids). iPhone sales make up about 80% of smartphone sales. At similar price points with similar monthly contract terms, people prefer iPhones in flocks.

Lastly, do you mean to tell me a Java based "box" is superior to a touch based OSX (aka iOS)? A virtual "box" OS will never be superior to a true native OS. iOS is missing features I admit, but we are getting there, every iOS update brings tons of features and I believe iOS will have 99.9% of all features found in Android. On the other hand, Android is broken out of the box. No amount of roms, or "project butters" will fully fix it.

GuitarDTO said:

I like my iPhone 5...BUT. It is starting to feel stale. Meanwhile, Samsung keeps pushing the envelope with the Galaxy series (Note, S3)....the Lumia's are somewhat interesting, and I'm also curious to check out what the new Blackberry has to offer. I'm not surprised by this type of news, there is a lot of great competition out there now, and we as consumers (not fanboys) all benefit.

EDIT: and yes, who the F is cricket?

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You sound like the typical American consumer. You bought into the hype no matter who the product is made by, now your're bored because they never said you wouldn't be. Lol. Now you want to run over to Sammy, maybe , because they have a few more inches of screen real eastate on them big ass galaxy phones. Hahahha! And soon you'd be tired of that after a few hours.
Oh how they love a sucker!

carmenodie said:

You sound like the typical American consumer. You bought into the hype no matter who the product is made by, now your're bored because they never said you wouldn't be. Lol. Now you want to run over to Sammy, maybe , because they have a few more inches of screen real eastate on them big ass galaxy phones. Hahahha! And soon you'd be tired of that after a few hours.
Oh how they love a sucker!

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You are correct, I'm an American consumer (and evidently I'm typical, and a sucker for making conscious choices about what I purchase). But guess what, it's my money, and I can spend it however I like and switch as often as I like. Not sure why that bothers you? I use my phone more than any other device, and therefore I like to actually pay attention to what the competition offers. You'll mature one day and realize it's just a phone. Samsung didn't make fun of your mother.

The fact of the matter is when the iPhone 5 shipped it was already stale and at least a generation behind the Galaxy S3. The Galaxy S4 will severely damage the iPhone brand. My business and personal computing, telecom, etc was all Apple a year ago, the only Apple products left are a few iPads and an iPhone or two. We moved back to windows machines, and Samsung tablets and phones. I am still using an iPhone but when the Galaxy S4 ships, I will ditch my iPhone...

It was a nice run, but technology has quickly passed Apply by...

gmanist1000 said:

Which would you rather have?

iPhone on Verizon, Sprint or AT&T

iPhone on Cricket

Hard decision there.

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I chose the latter. I have a 4s on cricket, for several reasons. After doing the math, it was a cheaper way to go, I'm not locked in to any contracts, and the coverage in my area is pretty good. iPhones aren't carrier branded, and if it wasn't for the carrier indicator on the status bar I doubt anyone would know I was with a 'GHETTO' carrier, as another poster so kindly put it.

ArcaneDevice said:

Oh please. The idea that somehow the iPhone is the toy of the elite is total crap. It's the most common phone I see, in the hands of everyone from schoolkids to technophobe grandparents to street kids who think they are part of G-Unit.

Especially since most contract plans give away the 4 for free now.

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Indeed.

I wonder how many people here (in the US) would pay for a full priced iPhone if they had to vs a less expensive phone.

P.S - the iPhone is sold at Walmart. You can't really say the iPhone is "elite"

jms969 said:

The fact of the matter is when the iPhone 5 shipped it was already stale and at least a generation behind the Galaxy S3. The Galaxy S4 will severely damage the iPhone brand. My business and personal computing, telecom, etc was all Apple a year ago, the only Apple products left are a few iPads and an iPhone or two. We moved back to windows machines, and Samsung tablets and phones. I am still using an iPhone but when the Galaxy S4 ships, I will ditch my iPhone...

It was a nice run, but technology has quickly passed Apply by...

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You switched back to Windows machines!? I've stated in other threads, my Macbook Pro and iPad are two things you won't peel from my cold dead hands ; )

EDIT: to add a bit to what you said though, I don't think the hardware was stale necessarily. The iPhone 5 is a friggin snappy phone, more than the Galaxy series IMO from my test runs in the stores. The OS is the stale part to me, and yes the size as well.

GuitarDTO said:

This whole thread being on the front page has no other point than to stir the pot....so don't pretend like you came in here with your panties not already in a bunch. My comments aren't any worse than anyone else's, and no comments on this topic are going to help anyone, so get over yourself bro. I stand by my comments.

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Geez, nice response to a compliment, "bro."