Apple to Allow iPhone Subsidies?

[chickenninja]

ya know this is kinda nice, lets me save me money in the short term, maybe even long term. i just hope that the money they put asside they use to buy me a pony one day. i dont care if you can "hear me now" or even if you can hear me "all round the world" cause im ridin pony!
cant wait for monday, from steve im hoping to get a unicorn. if i do il post pics of the glitter it leaves around the house.

 

[n8236]

Com'on guys, i'm sure it's the first time you bought cell phones.

Existing users ALWAYS get the short end of the stick because if you're doing any type upgrade u gotta pay the full or premium price. There's a reason why people keep switching carriers to get the deepest discounts.

The reason why new customers get the subsidies is because they are NEW and new contracts generate all types of commission for them.

I want the iPhone 2.0, but if i had to guess, the new subsidized will NOT be given to existing customers UNLESS they renew their contracts. So I would assume for those who want the new iPhone, but don't want to renew, it was cost an arm and a leg.

 

[Saladinos]

Yes the iphone is selling well. But it is still losing. The iphone is supposed to sell 10 million units in America in 2008. It has only sold 1/5 of that. It is still in high demand, however it would be higher at a lower price point. You may have 400 bucks (or more) to get an iphone, but average consumers don't. The iphone can sell 3 times as much as its selling now, if the price is lowered.

Was the target 10M in the USA alone? I doubt it. Jobs said 1B phones sold last year, and they wanted 1%. That's where the 10M target comes from, and is hence a worldwide target (unless every single person in the USA bought 3-4 phones last year).

 

[OllyW]

Why would Apple bow to the pressure of the phone companies if the iPhone is selling so well and has been a hit.

The iPhone has sold really well in the USA but hasn't been very successful in Europe, where phones are subsidised by varying amounts, depending on the monthly contract.

In the UK, on similar monthly rates to O2's iPhone plans (£35 plus) nearly all other competing phones would be free if signing up to an 18 month contract. If O2 are allowed to subsidise the iPhone the sales should really take off, as shown when they reduced the price by £100 to clear out old stock a few weeks ago.

If the subsidy is in the form of a rebate it will encourage more people to sign up for the contract and not unlock them to use on other phone networks.

 

[Sweetbike40]

why would you need an ipod nano when you have an iphone? lol

iPod Nano is better in the gym AND in the car. The touch screen is terrible in those situations. Dangerous actually. With the Nano, i don't even have to look at it and it's tiny.

 

[sr5878]

I want the iPhone 2.0, but if i had to guess, the new subsidized will NOT be given to existing customers UNLESS they renew their contracts. So I would assume for those who want the new iPhone, but don't want to renew, it was cost an arm and a leg.

Hurr hurr you got it! Welcome to the party!

 

[Saladinos]

iPod Nano is better in the gym AND in the car. The touch screen is terrible in those situations. Dangerous actually. With the Nano, i don't even have to look at it and it's tiny.

The iPhone headphone have a play/pause button, and if you double-tap the home button, you can get iPod controls, even when the device is locked. Then push the top-right of the screen from inside your pocket for next song.

You can also use the volume controls when it's locked.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I like it and hope they do it for existing iPhone users as well. This would let me get a new iPhone a little quicker.

 

[sr5878]

i disagree. i wouldn't buy a nano specifically for the car, but i would definitely prefer the tactile buttons while driving. i have a griffin itouch controller hooked up to my phone in my car so that i have the 'clickwheel' controls available while driving.

 

[0098386]

I find it HYSTERICAL that idiots are asking/want a rebate for a one year old cell phone. Have you lost your mind? Get a grip on reality. You should be thankful you got a $100 rebate last year when you CHOSE to get a new electronic gadget.

Incredible isn't it? I bought my iMac 2 years ago for £700, why won't Apple give me a discount on a new iMac?
That kind of logic doesn't work and is only carried along by some people with entitlement issues. Nobody is owed a new phone, nobody is owed a discount on a new one simply because they bought an older phone from a year ago.

 

[BongoBanger]

Subsidised mobile phones are common place in the UK mobile phone market. Most often then not, you can pick up the latest mobile phone handset free with a certain contract. There are some phones, though, that you do have to pay a certain amount for (smartphones, etc.) but nothing as high as £269.

It's worth pointing out that the handsets are subsidised by the carriers, not the handset manufacturers. In the case of the iPhone it'll be O2 (in the UK) that determines the level of subsidy. For this reason I think that you will only get the rebate after activation on their network so if you buy it to unlock it you won't get any money back at all.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I want the iPhone 2.0, but if i had to guess, the new subsidized will NOT be given to existing customers UNLESS they renew their contracts. So I would assume for those who want the new iPhone, but don't want to renew, it was cost an arm and a leg.

Well, it will cost regular price which is the current price of an iPhone today. I'm not sure that is an "arm and a leg." Besides if you are short $ you can always unlock your 1st gen iPhone and sell on eBay for $400 and use that to buy a new Gen 2 phone.

 

[elcid]

I am really interested in how they pull off selling at the apple store while getting the rebate.

 

[zombiedictator]

Incredible isn't it? I bought my iMac 2 years ago for £700, why won't Apple give me a discount on a new iMac?
That kind of logic doesn't work and is only carried along by some people with entitlement issues. Nobody is owed a new phone, nobody is owed a discount on a new one simply because they bought an older phone from a year ago.

Stop making false analogies.

No other industry that I know of gives you a discount for locking you into a contract except the cell phone industry. People don't feel entitled to a subsidy in this situation; they're just saying if there is one they shouldn't be penalized for being early adopters, which are Apple's best customers. If Apple is willing to subsidize, but they tell me I have to wait 6 months, that doesn't change the fact that I'm eligible for a subsidy, just not right now. We're not asking for something they aren't willing to give, we're just asking for it now instead of having to wait for some arbitrary deadline which never should have been set in the first place since we never got a discount on the first phone.

Before the iPhone, anytime you signed a new contract, whether it's being a new customer, switching providers, or just renewing, you got a discount on your new phone. The only exception to this rule was the iPhone. So if discount = locked contract and we never got a discount, doesn't that mean that if we want a discount now they should be able to give it to us as long as we sign a locked contract? Yes.

 

[thaitillidie]

Inquiring mind

Question: when's the last time you saw an "on sale" sign in an Apple store or on their website?

Apple doesn't do the rebate or discount thing. They don't do it now. They haven't done it in the past. And they never will! They don't need to. So this idea of AT&T offering them is absurd! Apple's an elite brand whether you want to admit it or not. They design premium products -- in form and function -- that command premium prices. That's what elite brands do -- duh! And that's the way it needs to stay!!!

Have sales of the v.1 iphone -- or ANY Apple product for that matter -- stalled? I'm no Apple historian but I don't think so! So why would you lower the price on a newer product with newer technology when the earlier version of that same product was selling like hotcakes in the first place?? And I don't think anybody who truly appreciates the virtues of top-of-the-line technology would have an issue paying a premium price to play.

Even though it lacks certain key features that should be there, anybody with the v.1 iphone right now knows that it still has that "special something" that you can't quite put your finger on (no pun intended) that no other phone has -- not even those "iphony" clones that are starting to flood the market.

So why shouldn't we be willing to pay $599 or even $699 for what it SURE to be THE ultimate must-have gadget?! And I don't think Apple is gonna screw us like it did the first time around by omitting key features that should be expected from a 2nd gen iphone. Matter o' fact I think there's gonna be at least 1 new feature that hasn't been discussed that's gonna blow everybody away!

Or at least there had better be at least 1 new feature that hasn't been discussed that's gonna blow everybody away lol!

So stop all the crying about discounts and rebates and subsidies! If you want the coolest phone on the planet, let's all show Apple our appreciation by paying out of our yahoos for it!!

 

[jsgreen]

...No other industry that I know of gives you a discount for locking you into a contract except the cell phone industry.

Most subscription-based products give discounts for long-term contracts. I sell contact center operational software that costs millions of dollars to big corporations and as a matter of course offer discounts according to how many years my clients committ to a contract.

Heck, even magazine subscriptions offer discounts for longer contracts.

 

[sananda]

Apple doesn't do the rebate or discount thing.

i got a £100 rebate when i bought my ibook and ipod with the higher education discount; it seems to happen every year.

Have sales of the v.1 iphone -- or ANY Apple product for that matter -- stalled?

i think there were lower than anticipated sales of iphones in the uk. there had to be a sale to move the unsold stock. but they flew out of the door with the £100 discount.

 

[arkitect]

Before the iPhone, anytime you signed a new contract, whether it's being a new customer, switching providers, or just renewing, you got a discount on your new phone. The only exception to this rule was the iPhone. So if discount = locked contract and we never got a discount, doesn't that mean that if we want a discount now they should be able to give it to us as long as we sign a locked contract? Yes.

Exactly.
I have no problems about signing a new 18 month contract with O2 — if that means a discount on the new iPhone…

 

[bmh16]

iPod Nano is better in the gym AND in the car. The touch screen is terrible in those situations. Dangerous actually. With the Nano, i don't even have to look at it and it's tiny.

Applications will be released to make an iPhone better than an iPod at changing songs etc. I should think. I have an app on my jailbroken iPod Touch called Pocket Touch, look it up, it's quality, and i wouldn't be surprised if it could be improved on even more by integrating it into the actual iPod on the iPhone!

 

[beeh]

If the rumors are true and you get 5Mp camera, true GPS, plus a 16GB iPhone! for $400, that's an awesome deal...no subsidy needed in my opinion.

 

[Padraig]

If the rumors are true and you get 5Mp camera, true GPS, plus a 16GB iPhone! for $400, that's an awesome deal...no subsidy needed in my opinion.

If Apple could deliver the phone, unlocked, at that price (or even 400-500 euro) they would have an enormous hit on their hands. I've always maintained that the current model is very cheap for what you get, the tariffs are what's killing it.

 

[Twinnie]

If Apple could deliver the phone, unlocked, at that price (or even 400-500 euro) they would have an enormous hit on their hands. I've always maintained that the current model is very cheap for what you get, the tariffs are what's killing it.

Yeah, I agree with that. Here in the UK I can get a tariff with all the same stuff as the iPhone minus the visual voicemail for £10 less per month, and get the phone subsidized as well, on a one year contract. That's what bothers me the most, the two year contract. Signing up for an expensive contract is difficult to stomach for me, but at least I can just pay off the contract normally and be done with it. With a two year contract that's twice as much to pay and mobile phone technology moves pretty quickly and will go a long way in two years. I have a phone that's around 20 months old and it's very old compared to what I see in the shops now.

 

[nep61]

What AT&T does is issue an expiring AT&T branded debit card with the VISA logo. It is supposed to work something like the Starbucks or any other gift card, only it can be used anywhere.

I was issued one for another phone purchase. However, have never been able to get through to activate it. A URL is provided for on-line activation, so I did it there. But when I went to use the card at a restaurant, it was declined.

I got a $50 Rebate (AT&T card with a VISA Logo) when I updated a previous phone... tried to use it after activation, merchant said it "wouldn't go through."

Next time I tried, it worked just fine...

One suggestion to all out there who eventually get these Rebate cards... (if that's how this plays out, come Monday) ) Either use the amount all at once , or use it in even amount increments...
The biggest catch with these cards is the "leftover change" that remains on the card after you use them to pay for something...

You know how difficult it can be to spend that last $3.82 on the card? Especially if you haven't kept track of the balance... Most people will get lazy and forget about the "Small Change" and that's ALSO what AT&T hopes will happen...

Merchants like you to use one form of payment on purchases... Just a "heads-up"....

Can't wait for Monday... !!!!!!!!!!

 

[GroundLoop]

Stop making false analogies.

No other industry that I know of gives you a discount for locking you into a contract except the cell phone industry.

Almost every industry does this. Landscapers will give you a discount for signing an annual contract. Cable companies give you "introductory rates" if you sign up for a year of service. Heating and Air Conditioning companies have discounted annual rates for maintenance. Walt Disney World offers discounts for seasonal or annual passes.

Do you need more examples?

Hickman

 

[EagerDragon]

Take a look at this

This looks like the new model, someone partially unboxed one of those do not open boxes. http://www.hardmac.com/news/2008-06-08/#8398