Apple Watch Series 3 Costs More Than $10/Month on Most Carriers, Can't Be Reactivated Without Fees

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Its a shame Apple seems more and more profit driven as time goes on.

That is the hidden underbelly to all of our posts about "...but who makes the most profitable _________"

There are 2 paths to becoming the first trillion dollar company:
1. Sell more brand new customers
2. Get more money out of each existing customer

Increasing average annual revenue-per-customer is a great way to get that trillion.

And then we can all praise them and gush about it like we had anything at all to do with it (beyond contributing our dollars toward that milestone).

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

ain't it just like the telecoms to nickel and dime customers every which way they can! Seeing this, I'm very happy with my Series 2. This system is fubar'd.

 

[Quu]

It's a shame that this feature gets spoiled by greedy networks. Almost $15 a month is too much to pay for this feature I think. In my country I pay about $11 USD for my entire phone plan (4GB LTE Data, unlimited texts and calls). It would be odd to pay more for my Watch than my actual iPhone.

 

[ELman]

The fees are my biggest complaint. The service should be no more than $5 a month making it close to $10 with the fees. If some of the Android devices are only $5 a month why can't the Apple Watch.

 

[Tech198]

"On Verizon in California, for example, there's an additional $1.55 in fees on top of the $10 per month charge."

Which would be standard practice with any device... Why should Apple devices be treated special?

I took this more of an "Apple users would be complaining at this if no-one shed the light" vs any other company with hidden charges that does exactly the same thing.

 

[deanthedev]

I pay $10 a month in Canada, and I get an extra 1 GB of data thrown in to my shared pool.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Seems like an incredibly niche use.
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Its not really new though. You've been able to buy wristwatches with Android and a cellular modem in them off ebay for years now.

Not new technology per se but, new with this particular Apple product.

Many of the same people complaining about the $10.00 are the same people that spend $150+ on Apple Watch bands and $100+ a month at Starbucks etc. I am not knocking the behaviour but gently reminding some that like everything else, it all comes down to willingness to pay for what is deemed important. And that is ok.

 

[UltimateSyn]

A gimmick and a ripoff, all in one.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Aren’t these kind of charges pretty standard in the US? By that I mean if you add an iPad to your account, you get these type of charges?

I’m not sure this is an issue with Watch plans, and more a symptom of the overall mobile network charging scheme that exists in the US.

For comparison, the service is £5 including taxes in the U.K. after 6 months free. Even that is too high to be honest, it should be included in your mobile contract for free (and just use part of your data allowance)

Yes, they are standard business. Nothing new. I question whether anyone actually believed that no extra fees were involved. Carrier websites let one know that additional fees are par for the course.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Verizon and AT&T and their greediness.

I know it's doctrine to shift blame to anyone else but Apple did have to build in the capability, strike deals with those types of players, etc. I suspect the old Apple would have put the squeeze on for this to feed off of some kind of wifi or bluetooth connection (with the phone) if necessary and/or demanded a better rate. The new Apple seems to be more of a mindset of helping all key partners make more money... knowing that at least a chunk of the faithful will just pay... and then probably hit threads like this one and gush about the quality of the service, how great it is to be able to ____________, etc., basically attempting to smack down those who dare to complain about something Apple chose to build this way.

 

[newtestleper]

What I would pay ($15/month plus twelve different taxes, possibly) to see the looks on all of the execs' faces when Watch LTE lines start dropping off their customers' plans. Mine's coming right now.

 

[Apple_Robert]

A gimmick and a ripoff, all in one.

They are in business to make money while providing a service. I love Capitalism even if I don't like everything company X may do while engaging in Capitalism.

 

[barkomatic]

If ever there was a case for an Apple MVNO, I'd think this is it.

I keep hoping Apple will buy T-Mobile or Sprint. Imagine how panicked AT&T and Verizon would be?

 

[Sappharad]

It's complete and unadulterated highway robbery... it's the SAME number and the SAME data plan you're already paying for. What the hell is it costing them?!

The article does mention that this is NOT true.

Two cellular devices can't actually share the same phone number. Your apple watch, iPad, etc. all have separate phone numbers. The 'sharing' is done all of the software & carrier side, to make it seem like you're using the same number.

I don't know where this limitation originates, but it's probably at the carrier level.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Happy with my non-cellular Series 3, and I can use it independently via WiFi to listen to Apple Music and send iMessages .

 

[gugy]

I would consider LTE if it was free with a iPhone data service. Sorry but I can't justify paying at least $120 p/year for a feature that I barely think I will use it. I have my iPhone 95% of the time with me and the times I don't have it during workouts, the last thing I want to do is make or receive a call.
More than happy with the AW without LTE.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

How long until we get to pay a monthly subscription for air?

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

What a rip off! $10.00 for what! Just use the data from my data plan. I don’t want a separate date!

 

[BigMcGuire]

My wife and I bought an Apple Watch for the first time 3 weeks ago. $350 / each or ... $50/more per watch and $10+/mo each? Yeah, no brainer there. We both got AW3 GPS only. Lemme guess... Verizon charges a $30 activation fee each too! Ahahaha. Nope not happening.

Happy with my non-cellular Series 3, and I can use it independently via WiFi to listen to Apple Music and send iMessages .

Yep, we both love it .

 

[Auhim]

I was really exited about getting my son an AW3-LTE until I found out what the carriers were charging, or charging at all.

It's complete and unadulterated highway robbery... it's the SAME number and the SAME data plan you're already paying for. What the hell is it costing them?!

First, I agree these fees are egregious. That said:

1. I think (but could be wrong) technically the Watch has a different number behind the scenes, but is set up on the network to work seamlessly with forwarding such that functionally it operates on the same number. Essentially this is an additional device with a new number plus a pretty elaborate message/call forwarding/duplication system allowing you to ignore that device's number.
2. Adding devices to a network isn't actually free for the network providers. They absolutely shouldn't get away with an argument that you'll use more data, because you're already paying for the data pool. But the constantly-active additional device hitting the same tower as your already-active phone means a cellular watch pulling data directly puts more strain on the network than a non-cellular watch pulling that same exact data through your phone's connection. Simply keeping more devices active does have an effect on how many people a given tower can serve. Nowhere near $10 (or more) per Watch extra, though.

 

[xxray]

$13 is what I pay per month for my phone bill, smh.

 

[44267547]

Why does a wristwatch even need LTE???

The Question should be what would lead somebody to want LTE? Perhaps for scenarios where running or physical exercise where they don't want their iPhone tethered, or they can listen to music streaming from there AirPods. Or perhaps leaving behind the iPhone for simple errands.

 

[Mike MA]

I can’t say for sure, but I know it works great when I’m in the middle of the lake on my Jetski!

It seems you have a life outside the online world, so you‘ll survive being unavailable for 15 min a day. But honestly, he related to that WiFi already provides a lot of features to the Apple Watch.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Its a shame Apple seems more and more profit driven as time goes on.

LTE doesn't give Apple anything extra. The same holds true for any additional LTE device you want to add.

Please explain how giving people the option of LTE, while making no extra money on the monthly service, is Apple being more profit driven?

 

[bunnicula]

I think that 12-13 a month is entirely too much for my own use case for my AW3.

I'm glad this article was posted, because I'd meant to cancel anyway. Maybe if enough of us cancel, they'll see that a 5 per month price (even with a couple 2-3 bucks tossed in for fees) is more likely to be agreeable to the average consumer.