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Better Activation method

B

beanobeano

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 4, 2008
11
0
I prospose that next yr instead of dealing with the crazy lines and the pain of activating at the store, they should sell these units at the regular unsubsidized price plus a premium and then have everyone activate it like last yr over the internet. When they decide to activate on ATT, they will then get a credit back of the subsidized price. If they choose not to activate then they will just have to pay the full price plus the premium. This way it is a win win for apple.

what do you think?
 
Not a bad idea. Although if people were to buy with a Debit Card, it may be several weeks before the refund comes through. If the difference was used as a credit to your account (paying off the first couple of months of service) would be an interesting idea.

TEG
 
Um..

I think this is the best way to deal with this problem. They can sell so many more phones. Can you imagine? They could have sold 3 million over the first weekend if they used this method

:D:eek::):eek:
 
Such a logical and elegant solution, isn't it? I also second the above poster's suggestion that the refund be applied toward paying off your phone service bills.

However, if they had followed this model this year, they wouldn't have been able to advertise: "Half the Price!" And if they do it next year, it would come off as an apparently steep price increase. Unfortunately, logic doesn't often win in this world... :(
 
They can still advertise as being "half the price" so long as people follow the rules and activate. They will be refunded the money right away.
 
Many people can't pay $600 straight up, especially if you're getting more than one. That's why they would never do this.
 
If you activate before the next billing cycle, they will recredit you the difference. If you activate it that night, you should be able to receive the credit back the following day. Giving people 30 days to activate through ATT should be plenty of time. Also, Apple will have to figure out a CC issue as they will be charged at the higher rate with the various cc companies.
 
beanobeano said:
If you activate before the next billing cycle, they will recredit you the difference. If you activate it that night, you should be able to receive the credit back the following day. Giving people 30 days to activate through ATT should be plenty of time. Also, Apple will have to figure out a CC issue as they will be charged at the higher rate with the various cc companies.
Click to expand...
They can do "temporary charges" on credit cards and charge subsidized price after activation. This is not a bad idea at all.

Btw, they can't sell 3 million phones because there weren't 3 millions phones to sell. But it sure would have been nice if people didn't wait for 5 hours and find out the phones have been sold out.
 
Next yr with 3rd generation iphone, they will have learned from this past yrs problems and will undoubedtly will have many millions on deck for the opening weekend. Hopefully the phone will be improved even more and will continue to create this frenzy.
 
Well it's OK but missing the point, which is that the old method cost AT&T zillions of dollars because people weren't forced to use them.

The new process is specifically targeted at stopping people getting phones and unlocking them, since it forces them into a contract with AT&T (or O2, or whoever).

AT&T do not want people being able to have iPhones without a contract, as it costs them business. And they are bigger and badder than Apple.
 
beanobeano said:
Next yr with 3rd generation iphone, they will have learned from this past yrs problems and will undoubedtly will have many millions on deck for the opening weekend. Hopefully the phone will be improved even more and will continue to create this frenzy.
Click to expand...
I am sure they had "exact" amount of phones they wanted available to be sold. Frenzy creates publicity, publicity keeps the line forming almost 1 month after launch. In a sh*t economic time like this, somehow Apple still sold millions of phones at $199/$299...it's insane.
 
Moi un Mouton said:
Well it's OK but missing the point, which is that the old method cost AT&T zillions of dollars because people weren't forced to use them.

The new process is specifically targeted at stopping people getting phones and unlocking them, since it forces them into a contract with AT&T (or O2, or whoever).

AT&T do not want people being able to have iPhones without a contract, as it costs them business. And they are bigger and badder than Apple.
Click to expand...

FYI, the phone is still not unlockable by 3rd party software.
 
"Well it's OK but missing the point, which is that the old method cost AT&T zillions of dollars because people weren't forced to use them.

The new process is specifically targeted at stopping people getting phones and unlocking them, since it forces them into a contract with AT&T (or O2, or whoever).

AT&T do not want people being able to have iPhones without a contract, as it costs them business. And they are bigger and badder than Apple. "

Exactly, but if people know they will be getting their money back that same day AND they dont need to wait in line to do it, how great is that? Plus they can activate at their convenience. That is just sweet. 99.9% of people will activate and ATT will have to be happy with that. No one will pay $600 for a phone, even if it is an iphone now that they have set a new precedent.
 
beanobeano said:
I prospose that next yr instead of dealing with the crazy lines and the pain of activating at the store, they should sell these units at the regular unsubsidized price plus a premium and then have everyone activate it like last yr over the internet. When they decide to activate on ATT, they will then get a credit back of the subsidized price. If they choose not to activate then they will just have to pay the full price plus the premium. This way it is a win win for apple.

what do you think?
Click to expand...

I like that idea. Hopefully the iPhone Nano will come out. Bleh, jay kay.
 
beanobeano said:
99.9% of people will activate and ATT will have to be happy with that. No one will pay $600 for a phone, even if it is an iphone now that they have set a new precedent.
Click to expand...

99.9%? No way! I bet there will be a significant number of people who are still willing to pay $600 for an iPhone if that is the price of having the freedom to pick whatever carrier they want.
 
Night Spring said:
99.9%? No way! I bet there will be a significant number of people who are still willing to pay $600 for an iPhone if that is the price of having the freedom to pick whatever carrier they want.
Click to expand...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Iphone-3G...oryZ3312QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Just browse around this search a little bit.

http://search.ebay.com/iphone-3g_Ce...sacatZ3312QQsaobfmtsZinsifQQsascsZ2QQsbrsrtZd


EDIT: I quoted the wrong person.......Crap.

I think you'll think different once you see some of those prices.
 
The thing is they will not have the choice but to activate with ATT since this is the only carrier allowed. If they choose to go the unlocked route and they are okay with being charged $600 then so be it. I suspect people will like having the full service of a wireless carrier like ATT. But if they dont want to they can do whatever they want with the phone, use it for a bookend if that is what they want to do with it. But without activation, they will not be able to use itunes or sync. That would be yet another way to keep them in the ATT fold.
 
beanobeano said:
The thing is they will not have the choice but to activate with ATT since this is the only carrier allowed. If they choose to go the unlocked route and they are okay with being charged $600 then so be it. I suspect people will like having the full service of a wireless carrier like ATT. But if they dont want to they can do whatever they want with the phone, use it for a bookend if that is what they want to do with it. But without activation, they will not be able to use itunes or sync. That would be yet another way to keep them in the ATT fold.
Click to expand...

But isn't that exactly what they did with the first gen iPhone on launch (minus the getting rebate from ATT when you sign up), and a large portion of iPhones went "missing," that is, unactivated with ATT, anyway, because people figured out how to unlock the phone?
 
Nope, there was no rebate from ATT from the first generation. You had to pay 400, 500, 600$
 
Better Activation Method

I prospose that next yr instead of dealing with the crazy lines and the pain of activating at the store, they should sell these units at the regular unsubsidized price plus a premium and then have everyone activate it like last yr over the internet. When they decide to activate on ATT, they will then get a credit back of the subsidized price. If they choose not to activate then they will just have to pay the full price plus the premium. This way it is a win win for apple.

what do you think?[/QUOTE]
 
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