You're wrong. That's not how things work in the grownup world. It's chess, not checkers. 1.0 vs. 2.0 is irrelevant. The contract terms are whatever the legal teams agreed to originally, and everything was on the table. There are no loopholes you can drive trucks through.
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AT&T to subsidize cost of new iphone
- Thread starter liquidh2o
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You're wrong. That's not how things work in the grownup world. It's chess, not checkers. 1.0 vs. 2.0 is irrelevant. The contract terms are whatever the legal teams agreed to originally, and everything was on the table. There are no loopholes you can drive trucks through.
This isn't news yet, it's a rumor. Also, I don't think adding a line to a family plan counts.
I'd love the price drop since my current contract with Verizon is up in June. I plan on getting one as soon as they are available regardless of price. Many of you folks make good points as to why or why not the phone will be subsidized. I myself think that since the economy is heading south that the phone needs to be subsidized to sell well. We can't afford gas or groceries but justifying a $500 phone is ridiculous for many people.
But - the author of the "article", Scott Mortiz, is not someone to pay any attention to. He has no track record as was stated by a few other posters. If you Google, "Scott Moritz" you will see plenty of post calling this guys BS.
Try this one: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/08/05/more-on-scott-moritz-and-the-jim-cramer-street-misinformation-engine/
It is just someone's opinion of Mortiz and Jim Cramer's take on Apple and the iPhone from 8/2007 but it provides insight as to why these morons make such revelations. There are plenty of other articles about Moritz's track record.
Grain of salt people - no matter how bad we want a subsidized, 3G, GPS, dual camera, thin and juiced 32GB iPhone.
But - the author of the "article", Scott Mortiz, is not someone to pay any attention to. He has no track record as was stated by a few other posters. If you Google, "Scott Moritz" you will see plenty of post calling this guys BS.
Try this one: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/08/05/more-on-scott-moritz-and-the-jim-cramer-street-misinformation-engine/
It is just someone's opinion of Mortiz and Jim Cramer's take on Apple and the iPhone from 8/2007 but it provides insight as to why these morons make such revelations. There are plenty of other articles about Moritz's track record.
Grain of salt people - no matter how bad we want a subsidized, 3G, GPS, dual camera, thin and juiced 32GB iPhone.
Tough crowd.
While certainly the poster was mistaken you guys could go a little easier and just say that it is virtually impossible that the lawyers would have missed that in negotiations.
There are some younger posters on here and you don't have to insult their intelligence just b/c you are older and more experienced.
the subsidy will help apple. Theyre losing money on monthly fees from att on unlocked phones. Close to 1/4 of the phones are unlocked. With the subsidy, apple still gets its money for the phone, and theyre guaranteed the monthly fees. More profit per phone. AT&T wins too because unlocked phones hurt them even more.
I would think current iPhone customers could extend their contract 2 years and get the subsidy. But, perhaps AT&T hasn't realized the profit they want from the whole iPhone thing yet. Usually you can update your phone once a year and be eligible for a new subsidized phone by extending your contract.
either a new iphone is about to hit the market, or a new iphone where at&t "isnt" the only carrier is about to hit the market.
Moritz lies...
Scott Moritz is not to be believed. He makes up stories based on the direction he needs stocks (especially Apple's, since it is particularly affected by rumors) to go, so his hedge fund makes more money. Dont trust anything he says.
Scott Moritz is not to be believed. He makes up stories based on the direction he needs stocks (especially Apple's, since it is particularly affected by rumors) to go, so his hedge fund makes more money. Dont trust anything he says.
Okay, you're wrong
Or at least, no one has any real knowledge of their contract. But ATT said last year to expect them to get more iPhone models, so it would seem they covered the obvious.
I think the other carriers could care less if they got the iPhone... they're selling millions of competing phones just fine. For that matter, ATT is also selling lots of other smartphones.
Apple goofed big time by going exclusive with ATT. They gave a huge five year breathing space to all the other phone makers, while providing lots of free publicity to drive all smartphone sales.
We're also going to see a small flood of VGA (and higher) 3G phones with nice touch interfaces this year. This will heat things up. Going to be very interesting.
Here are few things to keep in mind..
You wont be eligible for the subsidized price unless you are
A: A new customer to AT&T
B: Adding additional line to a family plan for $10 a month
C: Eligible for an upgrade
Unless you fall into the above category, you wont qualify.
As for the price drop, I can see Apple doing this to meet their 25-30 Million iPhone Sold.
You wont be eligible for the subsidized price unless you are
A: A new customer to AT&T
B: Adding additional line to a family plan for $10 a month
C: Eligible for an upgrade
Unless you fall into the above category, you wont qualify.
As for the price drop, I can see Apple doing this to meet their 25-30 Million iPhone Sold.
I think you are dead on. It has to be two models, there are to many conflicting reports. I just hope there is a 32GB iPhone too, but that may be the update before the Holidays with a 64GB Touch
As far as I'm concerned now, I think there is going to be one very big "ONE MORE THING", and it will be the iPhone Nano! It will be basically like a "regular" phone and iPod without the data/internet apps and widgets so as to appeal to youth and not have expensive data plans, and to keep it differentiated from the iPhone. It makes perfect sense, Apple will make a killing with all those "RAZR" and "Chocolate" people out there! And then eventually all those iPhone Nano owners will upgrade to the iPhone when they get older. Can't wait!!!
P.S. I have been calling this for a while now hehe
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Finally we'll get our unlocked iPhone. I'm sooo glad my contract with Verizon will be up in July.
I bring up Verizon because I'm currently in a contract with them. If an unlocked iPhone comes out I'm going straight to T-Mobile.
You might be eligible even if you have AT&T
Go to your online manager and check. I bought the iPhone when it came out, but I'm eligible for the phone upgrade since the iPhone was not subsidized. Even though my contract isn't up until June 2009 I can get a free phone because the last subsidy I used was in November of 06.
I'd recommend going online and when you're logged in click on 'upgrade phone' and see what your status is!
Go to your online manager and check. I bought the iPhone when it came out, but I'm eligible for the phone upgrade since the iPhone was not subsidized. Even though my contract isn't up until June 2009 I can get a free phone because the last subsidy I used was in November of 06.
I'd recommend going online and when you're logged in click on 'upgrade phone' and see what your status is!
I dont understand. If you are in a contract with Verizon, why does an unlocked iphone allow you to go to T-Mobile? It allows you to avoid AT&T but it doesn't help you get out of your Verizon contract. And do you hate AT&T or believe T-Mobile is better in some way?
Hope you don't mind the questions. I am just curious. I am wondering whether it has to do with better coverage in a particular city or something?
I just have had the impression that t-mobile is slowing fading away in the u.s.
Tough to compete with Verizon and AT&T. Sprint is hanging around a bit too I guess.
Hope you don't mind the questions. I am just curious. I am wondering whether it has to do with better coverage in a particular city or something?
I just have had the impression that t-mobile is slowing fading away in the u.s.
Tough to compete with Verizon and AT&T. Sprint is hanging around a bit too I guess.
As has already been stated, most likely not. With current subsidized phones you have to have had them for at least one year before you qualify. If this rumor is true then you'd have to be out of a contract (2 years is up) and sign a new 2 year contract to qualify.
Of course the first generation units are going to go down in value.
You make a point about Apple's price positioning and brand image, but that is not correlated with the decrease in the value of discontinued products.
I'm not convinced. If AT&T was offering any subsidies and the Apple store was not, then that points to locked and unlocked iphone versions. AT&T wants to retain current customers as well as get new ones.
If AT&T told me, as an existing subscriber not currently eligible for a hardware discount, that I could NOT get a subsidy on a new iphone, then I would have two choices:
- Buy a $499, locked iphone from AT&T
- Buy a $499, unlocked iphone from Apple
Seems to me that AT&T would be incentivized to sell me their locked phone at a discount and extend my contract another 2 years.
No, not really, because they're not extending it 2 years, they're extending it about ~1 year. For that it's not worth giving you the subsidy.
They could extend it two years - they set their own policies! That is the whole reason they offer existing customers an "upgrade" every 18-24 months.