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AT&T Begins Selling $99 (Refurbished) iPhone

Analysts?!?

I am not sure about the analysts predicting 2-3 times increase in sales if the phone was $99?

The original cost of hardware is NOTHING. A $100 decrease in the price clearly has little to do with the final cost of ownership.

If they REALLY want to sell a lot of iphones, AT$T should drop the data plan to $15 and add unlimited texting for $5.

THAT would sell some phones.
 
Hi,

I really don't see value in a device that I have to pay $3600 CAN over a three year contract. Making the iPhone itself cheaper will not change my mind.

If Apple can get rid of contracts and charge me $20 a month, then I'll bite, otherwise I will happily stay phone-less. Nearing 2009 and still no cell phone of any sort for me.

s.
 
Chundles said:
I have an iPhone, I love it. At no time did I EVER complain about the price. I never said it was expensive, I never said it was worse than a competitor's plans or phone.

People are reading waaaay too much into this.

I said they would sell more if the plans were cheaper. Anyone want to argue that?

Bloody hell, I never thought a two line post stating the bleeding obvious would blow up into such a mess. I also never thought I'd see a whole thread packed with people arguing FOR the status quo.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I agree with you entirely. No question Apple would sell more iPhones if the price was cut in half, just as they did when they cut the price in half the last time. For many potential customers though the resistance point is not the price of the phone, it's the price of the plans. Not everyone needs 450 minutes a month, let alone 5,000 minutes on nights and weekends for $80. Offer me a plan with 200 minutes a month for under $50.00, and I'm an iPhone buyer at $199. Don't offer me that plan, and I'm not an iPhone buyer if they gave it to me for free.
 
$99 is ridiculously cheap. Apple and AT&T should cut the montly rates down a tad and maybe that would help sales. Personally, I'd rather pay a little more once rather then more money each month. Either way, $99 for an iphone is a steal.
 
So all you did is state the obvious?

Chundles said:
I have an iPhone, I love it. At no time did I EVER complain about the price. I never said it was expensive, I never said it was worse than a competitor's plans or phone.

People are reading waaaay too much into this.

I said they would sell more if the plans were cheaper. Anyone want to argue that?

Bloody hell, I never thought a two line post stating the bleeding obvious would blow up into such a mess. I also never thought I'd see a whole thread packed with people arguing FOR the status quo.
Click to expand...

So all you said is that they would sell more if the plans were cheaper? Well Duh!!! Anyone could have stated that, it's like someone saying that Apple would sell more iPod Touch's if they started out at $50 for the 8GB. Really? No s**t!!! I'm sorry if maybe I read a little too much into this, but I didn't think that you would have put up a whole post just to "state the obvious.":confused:
 
mbraase said:
So all you said is that they would sell more if the plans were cheaper? Well Duh!!! Anyone could have stated that, it's like someone saying that Apple would sell more iPod Touch's if they started out at $50 for the 8GB. Really? No s**t!!! I'm sorry if maybe I read a little too much into this, but I didn't think that you would have put up a whole post just to "state the obvious.":confused:
Click to expand...

Let me guess -- your first post on MR?

Yes, it is permitted to state the obvious here, especially when this obvious point wasn't made in the article on which this thread is based.
 
sjo said:
well, you're not obliged to use apple/att gas stations to buy your gas, you can choose any road and you're not limited to apple/att toll roads. so your analogy sucks big time.

no wonder the economy is at the sorry state it is today when people have difficulties understanding the contracts they sign into.
Click to expand...

Well excuse me for not finding a "PERFECT" analogy. I was kinda going for the thought behind it rather than "Hey look at this analogy. It fits perfectly with the Apple/AT&T iPhone price and plan cost"

But here's something else. Yes, you are obliged to use apple/att gas stations (crappy analogy again-oh well), but if you don't like it then go and get some other phone that doesn't require the data plan. The iPhone uses data for many it's apps and it's voicemail so a data plan is required. The iPhone is 3G so the 3G plan is required. The iPhone is sold cheap (well cheaper than it would be without the plan) because it has a 2 yr. contract in which AT&T can recoup the subsidized cost of the iPhone. If you don't like it (required data plan, 3G plan, and 2 yr. contract) than I've said it before........GO AND BUY A DIFFERENT PHONE!!! If you want the iPhone, than pay the price, if you don't want to pay the price, than stop complaining. Uh Oh, another crappy analogy coming...If I want a Mercedes, I need to pay the cost of a Mercedes (which is considerable) If I don't want a Mercedes than I need to settle for a car that I am willing to pay the price for. I'm not going around and telling Mercedes that they should cut the price of their cars because I don't want to pay that much
 
applemonkey said:
bump for this answer
Click to expand...

I spoke with four different departments ending with the Retentions Dept.

The long and short of it: This offer is ONLY for new customers.
This policy is controlled by Apple. Even the CLN(??) dept can not price match the iPhone, again, this is controlled by Apple.

I spoke with the lady with the Retentions dept complaining that the web page is misleading as the offer does show up for existing customers if they login, and select the "Current Offers" button. Even when you search for the phone via the shop site selecting "Build Your Package", it took you to the zip code or Login page is misleading. She typed in my complaint and sent it to her manager as well as the web guys.

Update: just noticed that they changed their pages. They now say for new customers only. Wish they did that last night!!! :rolleyes:

Update x2: Seems that these changes are being rolled out right as I type: going from their normal page you see the changes, but not from your account page.

Well, that's that!
 
Sirobin said:
Wow, that's amazingly cheap.
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Yes. I think finally now that the price has dropped to $2,500 from $2,600 I'll buy an iPhone. At $2,600 thay were just out of my reach but now that the down payment has dropped to only $99 it's time to buy.

I'm sure that most consumers think just like me and they will sell faster now

Seriously now, that $99 or $199 or whatever price really is a down payment and the loan for the balance is hidden inside the fee for the air time. That iPhone's real price is closer to the price of a notebook computer than most people think.
 
I must say i'm quite happy with my non 3g iPhone plan for the unlimited data and unlimited texting and 650 minutes for 62.00/month What more could you want? The 3g plan is just insanely high I don't think i'd ever go with a 3G phone
 
Shawn D said:
I must say i'm quite happy with my non 3g iPhone plan for the unlimited data and unlimited texting and 650 minutes for 62.00/month What more could you want? The 3g plan is just insanely high I don't think i'd ever go with a 3G phone
Click to expand...

:apple:I have the same for $72.00 a month and the speed is crazy compared to a 2nd gen I do miss the Aluminum back though!:apple:
 
contract free

is it at all possible to buy the 99 dollar iphone, or even a new one, and bypass the contract, whether it be canceling it later or what. On another note, does this forum have some sort of classifieds where you could find a older generation iphone for sale? Thanks in advance
 
For what it's worth, I bought the first gen. iphone from AT&T refurbed. It came with a 1 year warranty that I extended with Applecare. It has been top notch and I've had no problems after nearly a years worth of use.
 
meagain said:
What's up with the page saying 'save an additional $50'????
Click to expand...

I tried to use the online chat system to get an answer on that last night and ATT just kept telling me that was already included in the listed prices. I restated the question a couple times...explaining that it was a $100 off the non-refurb price so the $50 must be referring to something else, but never got a good answer...
 
mbraase said:
Well excuse me for not finding a "PERFECT" analogy. I was kinda going for the thought behind it rather than "Hey look at this analogy. It fits perfectly with the Apple/AT&T iPhone price and plan cost"
Click to expand...

no need to get defensive. analogies are fine when they help to understand some complex issue. here the issue is not complex and analogy you chose is bad.

no analogy is better than bad analogy that only blurs the issue.

mbraase said:
But here's something else. Yes, you are obliged to use apple/att gas stations (crappy analogy again-oh well), but if you don't like it then go and get some other phone that doesn't require the data plan. The iPhone uses data for many it's apps and it's voicemail so a data plan is required. The iPhone is 3G so the 3G plan is required. The iPhone is sold cheap (well cheaper than it would be without the plan) because it has a 2 yr. contract in which AT&T can recoup the subsidized cost of the iPhone. If you don't like it (required data plan, 3G plan, and 2 yr. contract) than I've said it before........GO AND BUY A DIFFERENT PHONE!!! If you want the iPhone, than pay the price, if you don't want to pay the price, than stop complaining. Uh Oh, another crappy analogy coming...If I want a Mercedes, I need to pay the cost of a Mercedes (which is considerable) If I don't want a Mercedes than I need to settle for a car that I am willing to pay the price for. I'm not going around and telling Mercedes that they should cut the price of their cars because I don't want to pay that much
Click to expand...

no need to get defensive here either. of course consumers are free to choose to buy iphone under terms offered by apple/att or not to buy.

the thing you managed to miss completely was my point : in the us, you can't by iphone without a contract, so you cannot separate the price of the device and the price of the plan and claiming that $199 (or $99) is the price of the device just does not make any sense.

everyone with half a brain understands that when a device is sold for $199 ($99) with a mandatory subscription in one market and for $700 without subscription in another market, part of the cost of the device is undoubtedly "hidden" in the subscription.

claiming $199 (or $99) cost of device is misleading, plain and simple. it's sad that the media and blogs feed this kind of marketing.

the bottom line of this story is: att lowered the cost of the iphone experience from $1900 to $1800. whoopie doo.
 
ChrisA said:
Yes. I think finally now that the price has dropped to $2,500 from $2,600 I'll buy an iPhone. At $2,600 thay were just out of my reach but now that the down payment has dropped to only $99 it's time to buy.
Click to expand...
Then where do you draw the line? $2,400 and you'd buy? $2,000? $1,500? It's different for each person and maybe this is just enough to get them to buy.
 
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