Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone Subsidies, Production Ramp Up?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I guess Apple has been so smart as to confine their contract with ATT to the current iPhone version, so they would have to renegotiate when a new version with (dramatically) different specs would be introduced.
They could sell the unlocked and unsibsidised phone with the condition that some features may not work due to carrier exlcusive features such as visual voicemail etc.. It would be up to the customer to choose the carrier but ATT would still be the best option featurewise.
You are all thinking too US centric. There are other countries too, where 3G is quite well established and available. In some countries there may be no contracts with carriers at all and they would only sell unlocked phones.
Pretty sure the article explained Apple Stores would sell the phone for $399 and when you activated it you would get a $200 credit on your bill.
Clearly they have thought this through.
Tres le fake.
they are saying fake on engadget, however the mirrored back they are talking about is the reflection of the plastic box. The guys at engadget do not knwo everything (nor do I), but this one doesn't look to me like a photoshopped picture. And I wouldn't worry too much about the colors, since the colors are darkened in the picture anyway and this grey might be something else entirely. It all depends on the lighting.
Considering all his comments were about the US I don't think they are too US centric at all. Now if you're talking about Europe and you keep talking about the US then yes, obviously you're too US centric.
I think with all the news and how Apple has inked deals with multiple carrier in a single country (Italy for example) it's quite clear that he was ONLY talking about the US. And on those points he's right - Tmobile won't get the phone any time soon and Sprint and Verizon are still operating on CDMA so they'll never get it (Thank God, I can only imagine how Verizon would cripple the living hell out of the poor thing).
Proven fake already, in one of the front-angle pictures you can see the silver back and black plastic part at the bottom of the back.
The Gizmodo guys are saying the front-facing camera hole seems to be of variable size. I have no personal information... so.
That would work perfectly in a world where people knew the technical differences between t-mobile and att, for instance (like I said, I was commenting on the US only). Laws and everything are different outside of the US and completely beyond my scope, so I don't even comment on those.
But anyway, ATT isn't going to have a huge iPhone push, because they won't need one. People will flock to the device-as they have before-to either be the first on their block to get one, or to use some of the advanced features.
Allowing these individuals to go home knowing that they will be unable to utilize these advanced functions would be suicide on Apple's part, because they will end up with a snap load of returns.
People who purchase unlocked iPhones through e-bay and other means almost always know the risks involved with such a transaction, and their research usually leads them to ebay anyway.
Like I said, I highly doubt apple will openly and willingly sell unlocked iPhones to the American public.
Jailbroken? Maybe. This will only allow individuals to use it as an iPod-or-use their pre-existing att sim (but of course we already knew that). I see this as a perfectly viable opportunity for apple to make a few more bucks on the deal.
BTW, t-mobile has relationships with HTC and such that are (what i would consider) upscale if not exclusive, and I would hate to see the results of them breaking up that relationship (who is getting the touch? I'm not sure).
But Unlocked? No.
There's more pictures of the same thing at a different website, and you can clearly tell it's fake, appears they forgot to leave the black skin on the back of it when they took some pics from the front.
But they will they for the best mobile platform on the market. I guess this is Apple's bet. Let's wait and see. Too early to write it off just yet though.
The AT&T vacation blackout dates are a bit odd, starting on a Sunday. Otherwise, a launch on Friday the 13th would be so very Apple, not to mention just in time for Father's day (hint, hint ).
).I still have my fingers crossed for a launch today.
And yes, I do smoke crack, thank you very much!
And yes, I do smoke crack, thank you very much!
Subsidies are great, don't get me wrong, but it won't win over as many people as it would if they lowered the minimum plan below $60/month. I'd get one in a second if they left the price at $400 but allowed me to get the plan down to $45/month or less.
I pay about $30/month with Sprint for voice and data, through a special offer and a discount through my employer. I can't even get my employer's discount (we also have one with AT&T) on the iPhone because Apple and AT&T have it locked up so tight. Any rumours about that changing?
As much as I'm dying to have one, it's really hard to justify paying twice as much every month, no matter what the phone itself costs.
I pay about $30/month with Sprint for voice and data, through a special offer and a discount through my employer. I can't even get my employer's discount (we also have one with AT&T) on the iPhone because Apple and AT&T have it locked up so tight. Any rumours about that changing?
As much as I'm dying to have one, it's really hard to justify paying twice as much every month, no matter what the phone itself costs.
That's what I was referring to (sorry if I wasn't clear). They are saying that from the front the mirrored back is visible, but that is not true. What they are seeing is a reflection of the plastic contraption that the iPhone is suspended in in the box.
http://www.engadget.com/page/2/
The potential subsidy makes sense as a way to discourage buyers from using it on "non-approved" networks.
The AT&T vacation blackout dates are a bit odd, starting on a Sunday. Otherwise, a launch on Friday the 13th would be so very Apple, not to mention just in time for Father's day (hint, hint
Hmmm! Friday the 13th? Now that's spooky!
Hmmm! Friday the 13th? Now that's spooky!
It's spooky how adept Apple has become at separating me from my money.
You know, you have a good point. My current plan with AT&T is $40 but after bullshiat fees and taxes, it comes out to about $52 a month. I think the reason AT&T was willing to go against industry convention with Apple (no subsidies, "generous" revenue sharing) was because they realized that the iPhone was the first device to really make surfing the web on your phone usable. And data plans are where they make their bread and butter so I wouldn't expect to see any drop in data plan pricing unfortunately. I think it would take some real competition from the likes of Verizon or T-Mobile to lower rates but I think they are happy with their cabal of charging heinous rates.
We're looking at different things, same picture. Look closer in than the shiny part, you can see the 80%aluminum 20%black plastic back that's on current iPhones, it's not shiny at all.
Apple simply can't start selling an under-wraps product like this on the day they announce it. To do that, they would have to ship the product in advance, and no matter what they did, it would leak. So the earliest they could start to sell is in a couple of days, i.e. they ship the stuff out starting today.
