Verizon Cuts Price on iPhone 5 by $100 for Some Customers

Funny, my co-worker got the email and was just asking me about it. Not a bad deal if you are in the position for a new iPhone

It's not the price of the phone that keeps basic phone users away from smartphone, it's the extra cost of a data plan. I think we're close to a point where we can say those who have decided to make a move to a smartphone already have. Going forward, the basic phone will surely be phased out as the younger generation is growing up with the smart phone.

$199, $99 or $.99. When smartphones cost nearly $100 a month I don't understand how these price points change people decisions. People actually buy the previous gen models for $.99 when the 24 month contract for the phone will cost you near $2400. Does another $100 make a difference?
Iphone 5S release is close enough that if you don't have the 5 by this point you might as well wait another couple months. Nothing great will probably be changed, but at least you get back on cycle instead of always being 8-10 months behind the curve.

I'm still not going to pay them $90 a month for the base smart phone plan. Maybe some day when my kids have cell phones a family plan will pull me in but until then I'm sticking with my pre paid plan.

They probably do this to clear out stock or satisfy contractual obligations to shift a number of 5 models before the 5S announcement is made (at which point the 5 sales rate will tank until it gets reduced in price after the 5S is announced.)

Robert.Walter said:

They probably do this to clear out stock or satisfy contractual obligations to shift a number of 5 models before the 5S announcement is made (at which point the 5 sales rate will tank until it gets reduced in price after the 5S is announced.)

Click to expand...

Yup. Verizon eats another $100 so what? They just got you for 2 years.

Of course.....

They did. Notice not for previous smart phone users JUST basic phone users. They want that data revenue that all its about. Heck when the 5s (or whatever the next one is) comes out they will drop it to $99 anyway for anyone. Oh and a little off topic but they are considering dropping the contracts but NOT changing the plan rates. Really!?!?! Whats the point of that. I rather pay the $199 instead of $649 if I still gotta pay the same forever for the plan. The whole point is to not pay the subsidy in the plan after the 2 yrs.

nsfw said:

$199, $99 or $.99. When smartphones cost nearly $100 a month I don't understand how these price points change people decisions. People actually buy the previous gen models for $.99 when the 24 month contract for the phone will cost you near $2400. Does another $100 make a difference?

Click to expand...

You're making a valid point, but your numbers are a bit off. These offers are targeting existing basic phone customers. So the relevant number is the increased cost for a smartphone, not the full plan price (which the subscriber is already paying).

The base cost for a Verizon subscription is $40 plus any taxes and fees (assuming you had a plan before the current Share Everything plans). That assumes you're not text messaging at all, and if you aren't, you probably aren't interested in a smartphone anyway. So a basic phone with texting is about $55 a month before taxes and fees.

The base Verizon smartphone plan is $90 before taxes and fees (just to keep it simple). So the added cost is $35 a month, or an additional $840 over the length of the contract. Not exactly pocket change, but not nearly $2400 either.

This is going to appeal to people like my father, who have had basic phones but are now sitting on the fence about whether to move to a smart phone. Verizon is betting the $100 off is going to be enough to push them over the fence.

This move is to gain more revenue out of existing customers by enticing them to move to more expensive plans. As stated above, it's not the upfront cost of the device that is keeping some people from upgrading, it's the expensive rate plans. However, you would be surprised by how many people actually think these smartphones cost $100-200. So it will work on some people.

ECUpirate44 said:

Yup. Verizon eats another $100 so what? They just got you for 2 years.

Click to expand...

And they start getting an extra $40-$60 a month for the data plan. Pays for itself in a couple of months. And if you go into the smartphone world you probably won't come back to a feature phone.

Desperate move. I've heard that iPhone sales are way, way down, but I didn't realize just how bad things really are.

iGrip said:

Desperate move. I've heard that iPhone sales are way, way down, but I didn't realize just how bad things really are.

Click to expand...

yes b/c 37 million iPhones sold is way, way, way down.

My parents have basic phones. Wonder if this discount would apply if they were to get iPhones but be added to my existing family share plan.

siurpeeman said:

yes b/c 37 million iPhones sold is way, way, way down.

Click to expand...

From Forbes:

"Apple lags and has lost share in high end smartphones where 426 million units were sold during the first three months of the year. Gartner reported that in the first quarter of 2013, Apple’s global share of the high-end mobile phone market declined from 22.5% in the 2012 period to 18.2%."

iGrip said:

Desperate move. I've heard that iPhone sales are way, way down, but I didn't realize just how bad things really are.

Click to expand...

Verizon is not Apple. Verizon sells data plans and I don't think they care whether it is iPhones or Androids, or Blackberrys, or Windows phones. They just want you to sign a contract and buy into a data plan.

Tomacorno said:

Verizon is not Apple. Verizon sells data plans and I don't think they care whether it is iPhones or Androids, or Blackberrys, or Windows phones. They just want you to sign a contract and buy into a data plan.

Click to expand...

Verizon is subject to minimum yearly purchase requirements from apple, and they need to unload the pallets of iPhones building up in their warehouses.

So much for Shipped vs. Sold...

My mom was h3ll bent on getting an iP5 until she saw the cost of the plan, then she scrapped it all together. To some people, a smart phone is a luxury that is unjustifiable. I'm more included to keep her using her dumb phone and getting her an iPad mini with LTE. She carries huge purses, so she could pull that off.

FYI for anyone who wants in on this deal...
I was not "selected", but I have 3 flip phones on my account. Sales was no help at all, but customer service was able to get the $100 off for me. Had to do it on the back end with at $100 credit to the account, but still works out the same!

Also, I could not transfer the promotion to another line, it had to be used on one of the lines that was a flip phone. Another oddity, only 2 of my flip phones qualified, not sure why they didn't like the 3rd.

Thanks for the heads up!

iGrip said:

Verizon is subject to minimum yearly purchase requirements from apple, and they need to unload the pallets of iPhones building up in their warehouses.

So much for Shipped vs. Sold...

Click to expand...

Disclaimer: work Verizon retail

You're wrong. Just wrong. When guessing, please append a phrase such as "in my opinion" or "it makes sense to me that..", then nobody can call you out as a lying troll. At any rate, Apple leverages something called JIT (just in time) inventory management with iPhones for Verizon. We MUST sell them in a specific order (by so called "born on" date) & report nightly sales to Apple. We can often trace back that a phone was in China as little as three days before it ends up on the shelf for sale. There simply are NOT warehouses filled up with iPhones that need to be sold as you laughably claim.

Contract phones are stupid.

Contract phones are insane. I gave up my iPhone and went to Boost Mobile who is a contract free piggyback carrier for Sprint.

I paid $240 for my super fast, sexy screen, Galaxy S2 and I pay $40 a month for UNLIMITED 4G EVERYTHING. Even after I hit my monthly data cap of 2.5gb, they only throttle you down to 3G speeds! (I've never hit my data cap fyi)

I'll go back to iPhone once Boost gets one for $300. I do miss it, especially since I have Apple products for everything else. But I am not spending $1200 to $2400+ a year for a damn phone.

npep said:

FYI for anyone who wants in on this deal...
I was not "selected", but I have 3 flip phones on my account. Sales was no help at all, but customer service was able to get the $100 off for me. Had to do it on the back end with at $100 credit to the account, but still works out the same!

Also, I could not transfer the promotion to another line, it had to be used on one of the lines that was a flip phone. Another oddity, only 2 of my flip phones qualified, not sure why they didn't like the 3rd.

Thanks for the heads up!

Click to expand...

I have 4 feature phones and 1 smartphone and didn't get this. Did u call the 1800 number. Any details u can provide are appreciated.

iGrip said:

From Forbes:

"Apple lags and has lost share in high end smartphones where 426 million units were sold during the first three months of the year. Gartner reported that in the first quarter of 2013, Apple’s global share of the high-end mobile phone market declined from 22.5% in the 2012 period to 18.2%."

Click to expand...

That's "share", not "sales". Unlike what you said, sales are up; while share is down. Learn the difference.

topper24hours said:

Disclaimer: work Verizon retail

You're wrong. Just wrong. When guessing, please append a phrase such as "in my opinion" or "it makes sense to me that..", then nobody can call you out as a lying troll. At any rate, Apple leverages something called JIT (just in time) inventory management with iPhones for Verizon. We MUST sell them in a specific order (by so called "born on" date) & report nightly sales to Apple. We can often trace back that a phone was in China as little as three days before it ends up on the shelf for sale. There simply are NOT warehouses filled up with iPhones that need to be sold as you laughably claim.

Click to expand...

Is there not a minimum purchase requirement? Forget physical location of so-called pallets of iPhones, but is there a purchase requirement?

ThatGuyInLa said:

Contract phones are insane. I gave up my iPhone and went to Boost Mobile who is a contract free piggyback carrier for Sprint.

I paid $240 for my super fast, sexy screen, Galaxy S2 and I pay $40 a month for UNLIMITED 4G EVERYTHING. Even after I hit my monthly data cap of 2.5gb, they only throttle you down to 3G speeds! (I've never hit my data cap fyi)

I'll go back to iPhone once Boost gets one for $300. I do miss it, especially since I have Apple products for everything else. But I am not spending $1200 to $2400+ a year for a damn phone.

Click to expand...

If you are limited to 2.5 GB, its not "unlimited everything". There are few carriers who offer "real" unlimited data plans, but they are rare, and the plans are expansive, and not something they publish on their front page. A lot of my Internet traffic is made via a cellular modem (iPhone connected to a PC), and I have an "unlimited everything" like you, for which I pay just about ~$50 - data is capped at 10 GB, and I pay $50 more to have unlimited Internet with no cap or throttling.