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AT&T's Glenn Lurie on the iPhone

Seeing as the iPhone is 'gonna be released in under 30 days, I wish they would not be so ambiguous and tell us the details of the plans. I'll get one regardless of their plan schedule but it would be nice to know.
 
How much will the plan be?

Both Apple and ATT are veterans in marketing. They know how to price both the phone and the data plan. Verizon turned Apple down because of one or two reasons, or maybe both. Apple wanted a cut of the monthly bill and Apple wanted to keep the monthly cost near competitors rates.

Clearly Cingular/ATT is going to use this iPhone craze to gain market share from Verizon, Sprint and the likes. The only way they are going to do this is with competitive pricing. Anyone thinking they are going to get any minutes of cell phone coverage AND unlimited data browsing is living a pipe dream. Verizon and Sprints Voice/Data plans are more like $60-80/month. Oh, and don't forget the Apple cut, and as always TAXES.

Most likely the monthly bills will be in the $70-90 range. Over $100 would definitely be a deal killer, and maybe a product killer. Both Apple and ATT know this, and will price accordingly. Low enough to be a massive hit, but high enough to make a profit. After all that is the point of all this, isn't it?
 
Every phone Cingy/ATT sells has some form of rebate when you purchase the media bundles or blackberry unlimited or PDA max. So, what's going to be the deal with this one? No, discount on the phone, so maybe some other kind of rebate or a free product or maybe fre wi-fi bolt on for 1 year( i wouldn't mind that) being able to surf at most airports and McDonalds.
 
I'm going to wait and see how the initial reaction is. Either the consumers will love it or hate it. Right now I'm hating it because of Cingular.
 
450 minutes = 39.99 plus about 4 to 8 bucks in taxes
PDA DATA = 39.99 w/1500 text messages
Visual Voice Mail = 4.99 month
Wif Bolt on = 19.99 month
7 to 7 8.99 month
Voice Connect = 4.99 month

so, for the average user your looking at about lets see here


$120 to 140 bucks a month.... not bad for 450 minutes ayyyyy
 
I agree that the current price isn't an issue. At least, it isn't for me.

What is an issue is that it doesn't have GPS, while many other phones being sold today can plot the user's location on a mobile version of Google Maps.

Besides the incredibly obvious benefits of instantly pulling up one's location on a map, the usefulness of this is going to increase severalfold in the coming months as social networks and other online services become increasingly location-aware. And the iPhone doesn't have it.
 
TheSlush said:
My question is whether Apple will be offering these AT&T plans in their OWN stores? Will we be signing AT&T contracts at the Apple cash registers?

OR, if I buy iPhone at an Apple Store, will I then be forced to go to an AT&T Store to sign up for a plan? Surely not, as that seems much more user-UNfriendly than anything Apple would allow. Still, won't it be a bit weird for Apple to have an AT&T "store-within-a-store" to deal with plan sign-ups?

My guess is that maybe there will be very little (or no) plan choice, and this will all be much more automatic than cellular transactions have been in the past.
Click to expand...

An earlier MR story said that they were going to do web-based activations of the iPhone to make it simpler to get started. My guess is that yes, you will have to go to an Apple Store and buy it, then go elsewhere to activate it, but not neccesarily an AT&T store. Hell, activating a phone online with ANY carrier is usually easier than activating it in the store.
 
pavelbure said:
if you can afford $500 on a phone, you can afford a expensive plan.
Click to expand...
false. example: me. I am in high school and don't have enough money to pay $100ish a month. but i can save up over a few months for $500 easily if its a one shot spend.
 
Sounds like while it has Wifi capabilities, you have to pay for an unlimited data plan before you can get the phone.

Meaning if you use the wifi capability and don't use the data plan, the happier AT&T will be as they save bandwidth.

If you are in a city with free wifi coverage, you may never use the data plan that you pay for every month.
 
PatMack said:
I think it will appear on Swisscom first. Apple seems to care about going with the largest carrier, and here in Switzerland, i would peg that as Swisscom.

Also, they are owned by Vodafone, who i feel will be carrying the iPhone in Germany, etc.
Click to expand...

Swisscom is NOT owned by Vodafone. Its majority shareholder is the Swiss government.
 
ShiggyMiyamoto said:
Yeah same with me, but I think Lurie meant that IF you want to surf the web with the iPhone on their network you'd need a plan. I'd highly doubt that you'd NEED it to make the 2 year contract etc.
Click to expand...

Hope you are right, but I am afraid they will only sell it with a bundle of packages and that you have to keep the entire package for the 2 years, any changes require a new contract and the only thing you can change is probably minutes and max number of text messages.
 
pavelbure said:
if you can afford $500 on a phone, you can afford a expensive plan.
Click to expand...

not necessarily true at all. Over 24 months, the iphone will cost far, far more in usage fees (minutes and data combined) than $500. It's not like people are either "rich" and can afford it, or "poor" and can't. There are lots of folks somewhere in the middle who can swing $500 + $40/month for minutes, but not another $40/month for data.

bossass said:
If I had to get a $100 a month plan, that would be a dealbreaker for me.
Click to expand...

same.
 
Most of us on the "$39.99" plans pay somewhere in the $55 range once you add on the little things like text messaging and taxes. Clearly the iPhone monthly rate will be north of the $50 range. The question is how much. Browsing, email, widget tied to the web are all very useful. (I hope there is an enterprising entrepreneur out there working on a real time stock quote widget-subscription service ($20/month?)). The only question is how big is the premium. Clearly a high premium would slow sales and defeat the intro.

I see ATT using this as a long term play to gain subscribers, i.e. steal them from Verizon and Sprint. They clearly have a handset technological advantage for the next few years. They potentially could lure a lot of subscribers over with a low premium, relative bargain, per month rate. In the end, long term contract, loyal users are what they telcos want. Most users do not switch carriers that frequently Very few leave the day their contract expires. When a cable company is bought nowadays the acquiring company pays north of $2000 PER SUBSCRIBER for the cable company. They know that they will make it up over the course of several years.

For now, it's all about luring new subscribers. Look for premiums for people switching. Maybe even clever "I'm an ATT, I'm a Sprint" Tv ads :cool:
 
ShiggyMiyamoto said:
Let me reitterate my post there. He said that IF you want to surf the web on the ATT network you'd need some sort of "Unlimited" plan. Otherwise you can just use it when in WiFi zones. What's so hard about that to understand?
Click to expand...

Exactly where he made that statement????

Here is the text "A: No, actually it won't. I think it will be great for us, and here's why. One of the things with this device — people are going to be asked to have an unlimited package — people are going to have to have a package with us to browse. That's one good thing for everybody.

I think this is going to create a new way people use handheld devices because the browsing experience is as good as the PC browsing experience. So I think it's not going to hurt us at all. I'm excited about what it will do for the industry in terms of how people view mobile browsing.".

Maybe you are reading into what he said?
 
pederg said:
Swisscom I say!! haha
Click to expand...

If you're on Swisscom you're better off getting a 3G phone.
In no way it's going to be Orange because their live TV service only works with UMTS, and they're growing their 3G network very fast.
The best match is Sunrise, which has very little UMTS coverage.

Although who said the iPhone has to be exclusive out of USA?
 
toxer said:
I think that arn should add "neutral" or "don't care" rating in addition to positive and negative. Personaly, I do not really care about iPhone or iPod news posted on MR. It would also be a good way to test how relevant posted news are to the audience.
Click to expand...

Yes, Please do add a "I dont care voting button"
 
cube said:
Swisscom is NOT owned by Vodafone. Its majority shareholder is the Swiss government.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected.

However, Vodafone has a 25% stake on Swisscom Mobile. The rest being, as you said, owned by the governemnt run Swisscom. Vodafone does have a say though.
 
Sony Ericsson

I am producing a huge corporate event for Sony Ericsson this week.

They gave me all their models and descriptions to create the videos. I have 13 videos for 13 different phones... the iPhone does the functions of 12 of them except for one that can measure your heart beat when you are sunning "like the Polar".

The internet navigation of this new line is stone age compares to the iPhone, it remindsme the first analog cellphones. That is how advance the iPhone is.

I have a Samsing phone and I am supposed to be able to surf the net, actually, I do not know if I am actually doing it because I never get to see a web site, but that was the first week when it was new.

So, good for Apple.
 
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