Since you don't have to pay $199+ up-front to upgrade to a new phone (like with 2-year contracts), I think they've actually removed one of the biggest upgrade roadblocks!
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Apple Simplifies 'Trade Up With Installments' iPhone Program by Relying on Carrier Financing Plans
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I don't know the particulars of NEXT. Forgive me.
But on a regular contract plan... you used to pay $199 at the time of purchase and then a portion of your bill was for the phone each month. And you were also tied to a contract and couldn't leave the carrier for 2 years.
And the sad thing was... people actually believed that the iPhone only cost $199. But no... they were actually making additional payments for the phone each month... they just didn't realize it.
Today, however, you see exactly how much you pay for the service and exactly how much you pay for the phone. It's much more transparent.
It might not be cheaper with this new method... but I never said anything about price increases in my earlier comment. I just said it was the same idea (making monthly payments for phones)
Carriers have steadily raised prices over the years anyway. Who's to say that the price wouldn't have gone up if they had kept the contracts?
And besides... I thought people HATED contracts! Now they want them back?
It could be worse... you could still be tied to a contract AND the price might have gone up!
It's tough to do a comparison between an old contracted plan from 2013 and a new payment plan in 2015. Everything is in flux. It wasn't too long ago when you still had to choose the amount of minutes you wanted
Saying it's waaaay more expensive now might be missing a lot of variables. But I don't know. Every carrier has multiple options now... from buying a phone outright... to an upgrade plan... to a traditional month-to-month plan. It's hard to compare.
You might be paying more on a payment plan than you did under a contract... but it might not be the contract that made the difference.
People say they want to go back to contracts... but it might not be any better in this environment today. Times change.
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We should instead be discussing all the awesome announced and just released apple products......looks at buying guide....
there is a reason there is a bit of doom and gloom on MR....nothing a few "new" products cannot fix .....and not ******** watch bands!!!
is that $155 including the phone NEXT payments? or are you saying NEXT doesn't make sense with your current plan?
Assuming you're on AT&T, the new NEXT payment plans don't do well on the old unlimited plans. They only make sense if you are on the shared data plans (at least through AT&T that I am most familiar with). Sharing the 15GB plan, you would pay $100 + $15 (per smartphone) = $130 before the cost of phones and taxes/fees (and you're not paying the $199 (+) upfront cost of a phone on a 2-year contract via the old method). But if you are truly utilizing your unlimited data, that will be a non-starter.
https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html
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$250 for a 6s+, WTF? I liked Apple's plan because you could get an unlocked phone, so will the only option for an unlocked phone be to buy it full price? Traditionally the full price option hasn't been available on launch day so I hope that's not an issue. It seems like Apple lost a stare down with the carriers on this one.
The cost of service went up. That's what many don't consider here.
Just like an utility (in paying more for electric and water than I was ten years ago when the iPhone came out).
their 6 plus price is $250 (yes to be $300). Where can I sell a 6 plus today and get $750? Maybe if I had a 128gb version and it was brand new.
It's certainly a shame that Apple doesn't differentiate trade values based on storage, considering they already unsold you $100 per tier and their cost to do so was very low, but it is what it is.
Local CL shows I could sell a 6 plus 16gb for about $400. There are a couple dozen listings, so if I wanted or needed a quick sale of have to drop the price some, let's say to $360.
So I'm probably going to sell that quick, but I have to deal with the hassle of meeting someone somewhere whereas I can just walk into Apple when I'm ready for a new phone and have this all be hassle free.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is a cost of service. I could argue that it's silly that people spend $800 on an iPhone when they could get a flagship android for much less. You'd come back and tell me that it's because people see value in the Apple product. Well, people trading their phones in for less than what a private sale might net them do so because they see value in the lack of hassle and effort.
I will say that I've sold stuff on Craigslist and the number of tire kickers is down right amazing. I wil no longer travel more than 5 miles from home because people just decide it's cool to stop responding to messages and no show. I haven't sold anything too recently because I just don't have the time in the day to deal with it.
More ways to lock you to your carrier and keep monthly rates high while scamming you out of a perfectly good phone for half the price it is worth.
I'm holding on to my iPhone 6 128GB for at least 3 years and enjoying my CAD$35/month unlimited/3GB shared plan after my subsidy is paid off.
It all depends on how much you paid per month with your subsidy contract.
Not everyone had a great subsidy contract rate. For those folks, Mobile Share + NEXT can be cheaper.
Some people had great subsidy contract rate, especially those on those old AT&T FamilyTalk plans. Those were a bargain back in 2008, which made them stupidly cheap in 2014. Compared to these plans, MobileShare + NEXT are a lot more.
Sometimes subsidy was cheaper. Sometimes not. Just depends where you started from. Not everyone is starting from the same price.
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Yes! This is a fair assessment. I took every deal ATT offered.. 15GB turned to 30 for same price.. All those deals every year.. Then I also had my wife's crossgrade I could use every other year.. since she never wanted a new phone (still has a 5). So a new phone every year never cost me more than $299 for middle grade. And I never paid more than the $25/mo for the line. Never paid the $40 per line with ATT to keep 2yr. So there was just no way for NEXT to compete with my FamilyTalk 2yr contract pricing and using wife's crossgrade.
Right, I have unlimited data and my bill has not gone down either. I have been off contract since October of last year. That's the catch of being grandfathered in. Not sure why this happens but I have to pay separately for minutes w/rollover (about $40) and unlimited texts (about $20) and unlimited data (about $35). At&T Next with "mobile share" appears that it will cost about the same for me -- $50 for 5 GB and unlimited minutes and texts, about $30 for the latest phone, and I think a $25 access fee (which I don't understand). I realized recently that I have been using less than 5GB a month and I don't have wifi on most of the time. So by using Wifi I can cut that down even more. I'll probably just get on Next in order to get a new phone every year. It's all confusing and stupid if you ask me.
I don't have any problem with anyone preferring one method of payment over another, as long as they realize, the "carrier subsidy" of a 2-year contract is not a gift, a signing bonus, concession, or discount in anyway. It is a LOAN, which is -repaid-, know it or realize it or not. The 2-year term is to ensure the loan repaid.
so why do ebay when you can do craigslist, you both meet in person. I've been using this method for the last decade and it works great. Before you meet, you agree on price and then meet in a very public area.
They ATTEMPT to get it repaid. But there's so many ways around it. Nobody holds for 2 years. They just get a new phone every year and re-up for 2 more. Well again. If they know how to use cross grading.
I have four phones. Mine, my wife's, my daughters and my mother in laws. In October I will spend $650 or so for a new iPhone. I will give mine to my wife, she will give hers to our daughter who will hers to my mother in law. I am fortunate that they are not as geeky as I am. for the $37 a month upgrade program from Apple it would cost me almost three times that each year to upgrade everyone.
Agreed, though personally I don't mind paying top dollar for a top rate phone full of the latest tech. For me the problem is that the iPhone ISN'T a top rate phone with the latest tech. It's not even close. I'm not going to even consider paying what Apple charges for a phone with tech in it that is at least two years behind.
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Sounds ridiculous.
What proof do you have that the slow roll out of contactless POS terminals by U.S. merchants is related to the amount of Apple Pay capable devices in the wild?
Canada.
On the first 3 pages of Kijiji: I'm seeing 128GB 6+ $900-$1050 in multiple listings. I found a 16GB for $550. 64GB ranging from $700-900
The cheapest I'm seeing a 16GB Phone 6s is $575 CAD - and it was locked. Cheapest 64GB was $850. Most are $900-1200. There were no 128GB models listed.
I also saw two unlocked 5S for $450 for 16GB, which to me is crazy.
I think at this point, Apple is definitely going to feel the pinch, its hard to justify spending 750 dollars every other year for a new phone, especially ones that don't have any major features.
They're hoping the financing option plugs that hole, though I'm confused about the story, does that mean Apple is no longer offering their financing program?
