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O2 to Drop UK iPhone Prices in May?

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Apr 12, 2001
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Mobile reports that UK carrier O2 is planning to cut prices on the iPhone in May ahead of an expected summer revamp of the device.
The 3G iPhone will be free on its £35 and £45 per month tariffs from May. The 16GB version is currently only free on the £75 per month contract, while the 8GB handset is free only on the £75 and £45 per month deals.

Customers currently spend between £59 and £159 for an iPhone on the £35 and £45 monthly tariffs.
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Mobile believes that the summer revamp will come in June, or more likely July, of this year, which fits with Phil Schiller's previous comments on Apple product cycles. Apple's recent announcement of a March 17th media event also is suggestive of last year's pattern of a March media event followed by a June announcement and a July launch.

Article Link: O2 to Drop UK iPhone Prices in May?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/13/o2-to-drop-uk-iphone-prices-in-may/
If they reduce the contract prices, then I will be happy! I know they won't, they already did that when the tax cut arrived.
 
Well thats £159 I'm not gonna see again.

I can see me forking out full price for the new edition come summer and then trying to hide it from the little lady for the next 6 months... Oh joy.
 
koollectablz said:
Well thats £159 I'm not gonna see again.

I can see me forking out full price for the new edition come summer and then trying to hide it from the little lady for the next 6 months... Oh joy.
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If this is true then the Iphone NexGen is a dead cert for a June release. :cool:
 
Well, I consider myself an early adopter, and I think that this is almost penalising their most loyal customers. The early adopters. What everyone really wants is a nice bump of their minutes and texts.
 
Yeah, a couple 100 extra texts and minutes would make it easier to swallow for the peeps that already paid...
 
Phones have always cost more when first released and have never been in the habit of rewarding loyalty - they generally offer better deals to switchers vs new customers. We've been pretty lucky to have been allowed out of contracts early to upgrade to the 3G, and I know that it's not much but phone companies are traditionally gits.

Whining that we deserve something when we bought the phone for the price they set on the contracts that they offered makes no sense - early adoption bought you months of additional use!
 
I'd still moan if they gave it to me for free and had Steve Jobs come over and show me how to Jailbreak it.
 
Hold on, why does O2 owe anybody, because you were an adopted early? You signed a contract agreeing to the terms they set out, surely that is fair and you got what you wanted, and enjoyed since then?
 
Oh that's cool. I'll probably get an iPhone around then and spend that £160 on an Xbox or something :). That £35/mo tariff is perfect for me.
 
O2 has always provided better deals than AT&T for the iPhone but they're just doing this to clear out their inventory before the next version.
 
Yep, we were early adpoters and paid for it. My iPhone has been worth every penny of the £159 I spent (twice....as my other half wanted one when she saw mine!)

I think the contracts are reasonable given they include data. I have more minutes and texts than I use in a month. I do hope O2 would allow us to upgrade to a new iPhone (although I'd only upgrade for some significant hardware upgrades - not just memory bumps)
 
Yeah Right

What's the betting the will reduce the price of the 3G just so they can clear their old stock. The new iphone that comes out (whenever it does) will be the same price as the current plans if not more ......:rolleyes:
 
Did anyone folllow through to this link. Not directly related but it makes a good candidate for the I have no idea about Apple's business and I'm going to spend the next article proving it award:

New iPhone could be bad news for O2
We are, I believe, just three or four months away from the next Apple landmark. Will the next iPhone be a top-end replacement; another £500 all singing, all dancing piece of Apple statement making
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When was the iPhone ever £500? Even on O2 Pay and Go the top model still doesn't go over £400. The first one was ~£260. I can't remember that exact price.

or a pared-down, circa £250 mass-market ‘Nano’ phone.
A top-end device would repeat Apple’s model in iPods and MacBooks of succession products.
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No it wouldn't because the business models for Mac and iPod are completely different.

Apple have consistently lowered the price of iPod after its introduction in 2001 to make it a mass market device. They have more recently aggressively lowered the price of the touch in order to pick up market share for the OS X Mobile WiFi Platform by sacrificing profits in the short term.

Meanwhile Apple has positioned the Mac slightly differently in order to maximise margins for that division. There is no point chasing the razor thin margins of PC OEMs as it harms the product which in turn harms the platform.

The major reason the iPod and iPhone are so competitively priced and still profitable is because Apple have leveraged their dominant market position to score very favourable pricing on one of the most expensive components: flash memory.

It follows a rationale that there is a large but limited number of high-spending, gadget-hungry Apple followers, who can be trusted to regularly open their wallets on updates to their existing iPod or laptop.
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Large but limited? How does that work? As many iPhone owners are owning an Apple product for the first time this argument falls apart fairly quickly.
 
Beaverfish said:
What's the betting the will reduce the price of the 3G just so they can clear their old stock. The new iphone that comes out (whenever it does) will be the same price as the current plans if not more ......:rolleyes:
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All the UK mobile companies do this. When the latest top of the range phone is released, it is free on the most expensive contracts and you usually have to pay £50-£200 on the mid range and cheaper contracts.

After a couple of months, it will be free on the mid range contracts and £50-£100 on the cheap contracts. Then, after six months it is free on all contracts.

A few months later, the new replacement model is released and the cycle starts all over again.
 
OllyW said:
All the UK mobile companies do this. When the latest top of the range phone is released, it is free on the most expensive contracts and you usually have to pay £50-£200 on the mid range and cheaper contracts.

After a couple of months, it will be free on the mid range contracts and £50-£100 on the cheap contracts. Then, after six months it is free on all contracts.

A few months later, the new replacement model is released and the cycle starts all over again.
Click to expand...

this is quite natural since the price the carriers have to pay for a model generally decreases as the model gets older. afaik apple has tried to maintain the price of iphone stable (with the exception of the first price correction couple of months after 1st gen iphone release).

the discounts on iphone have occurred when the carriers have wanted/needed to sell out their excess inventories (especially in germany and in the uk). given that there're about 2m iphones in the channel it's quite safe to predict discount sales all over starting in about one month...
 
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