Remember when iPhones cost $199.00?

[myscrnnm]

Why do you think cancellation fees were so high on those contracts? I seem to remember $450 was what it would have cost me to break a 2 year contract.

They were recouping the money they paid to Apple for each phone with 2 year contracts.

Uh yes, that is what I think. Did you not read my post? You were getting the subsidy in exchange for guaranteeing your business to the carrier for two years. Early termination fees were calculated based on how much of the contract you had fulfilled, essentially making up the difference and allowing the carrier to roughly recoup the retail value of the phone.

 

[boltjames]

No, but really. Service prices ARE cheaper these days in the majority of cases... ESPECIALLY in the case of family plans.

You can type all the inaccurate statements you want in all CAPITAL LETTERS but it doesn't change the fact that you are wrong. Here. Let's use some real numbers and look at the monthly math:

I have the AT&T Unlimited Plus plan for my family with 5 iPhone's. We own all the phones. They are all iPhone 6's or 6S's from the $99 two-year-contract days.

This AT&T family plan we are on now is $275 a month. Our bill from 2009-2016 was $265 a month. We pay $10 more a month, not less.

If I got 5 new iPhone 8's for 2 years it would cost me $699 x 5 or $3,495 or $146 a month.

If it were the old way, those same 8's for 2 years would be $99 x 5 or $495 or $21 a month.

Those are real numbers.

Conclusions:

We pay $10 more per month than we used to for almost the same service. We have unlimited plans, but we don't use that much data.

If we all got brand new iPhone 8's for $99 like the old days, we'd be paying $10 a month more than we used to, a 4% increase.

If we all got brand new iPhone 8's for $699 as currently constituted, we'd be paying $125 more a month than we used to, a 51% increase.

This isn't theoretical. These are real numbers. We weren't "always paying for it" when it came to the hardware. We are getting butt-raped by the carriers now. The free ride is over. No need to pretend you aren't getting hurt financially when you are. Stop believing the lies the salespeople tell you.

 

[bige12]

I do miss those days

 

[HPLouis]

Why do you think cancellation fees were so high on those contracts? I seem to remember $450 was what it would have cost me to break a 2 year contract.

They were recouping the money they paid to Apple for each phone with 2 year contracts.

I know for ATT, they were $200 and then rose to $325 and would decline $5 per month.

I never saw a $450 ETF and I've been with ATT since 2009

 

[Oridus]

You can type all the inaccurate statements you want in all CAPITAL LETTERS but it doesn't change the fact that you are wrong. Here. Let's use some real numbers and look at the monthly math:

I have the AT&T Unlimited Plus plan for my family with 5 iPhone's. We own all the phones. They are all iPhone 6's or 6S's from the $99 two-year-contract days.

This AT&T family plan we are on now is $275 a month. Our bill from 2009-2016 was $265 a month. We pay $10 more a month, not less.

If I got 5 new iPhone 8's for 2 years it would cost me $699 x 5 or $3,495 or $146 a month.

If it were the old way, those same 8's for 2 years would be $99 x 5 or $495 or $21 a month.

Those are real numbers.

Conclusions:

We pay $10 more per month than we used to for almost the same service. We have unlimited plans, but we don't use that much data.

If we all got brand new iPhone 8's for $99 like the old days, we'd be paying $10 a month more than we used to, a 4% increase.

If we all got brand new iPhone 8's for $699 as currently constituted, we'd be paying $125 more a month than we used to, a 51% increase.

This isn't theoretical. These are real numbers. We weren't "always paying for it" when it came to the hardware. We are getting butt-raped by the carriers now. The free ride is over. No need to pretend you aren't getting hurt financially when you are. Stop believing the lies the salespeople tell you.

You can type all the inaccurate statements you want in all bold letters all you want but it doesn't change the fact that you are wrong. Here. Let's use some real numbers and look at the monthly math:
What are the details of your Unlimited Plus plan?

5 Lines on AT&T Unlimited Plus is $215, or $205 (If you do Autopay/Paperless) before taxes and fees. I strongly doubt that you're paying $60-70 in taxes/fees.

Do you have insurance? What was your Family Talk plan set up?

And I feel as if you missed when I said "in the majority of cases". There are of course caveats when it comes to certain discounts that were applied. There's also different scenarios for data usage and if someone needs/wants unlimited data or not.

I'm not just speaking out of my ass when it comes to this. I have 9 devices on my own personal account. I too had an old school family talk plan before adding the 4 additional lines. I have Unlimited data now, and had unlimited data then. I pay roughly the SAME (see what I did there?) amount monthly for my 9 lines NOW than I did for 5 lines THEN.

I am speaking from my own personal experience. Unless you have access to my bank account and my AT&T account, I don't see how you can tell me that the service isn't cheaper.

Furthermore, not everybody is in your particular situation. Lets take this as an example:

Family plans compared, with 5 lines with people who DON'T (I know you like the caps so much) use unlimited data.


Family Talk 700 Plan - $60
Family Talk Partner Lines - $10x4 = $40
Family Talk Unl Text - $30
3GB Data per line - $30x5 = $150

$60+40+30+150= $280



Mobile Share Advantage 16GB (Unl talk / Unl Text) - $90
Mobile Share Advantage Line Fees - $20x5 = $100

$90+100= $190

Please do me the huge favor of correcting me if I'm wrong, but $280 is indeed $90 MORE (because I know you love it) than $190.

This isn't theoretical. These are real numbers.

Hmm - If I was a family on this 700 min plan, and was presented with the MSA 16gb plan, I would probably be pretty silly to not go with it, right? I mean I am SAVING (😉) $90/mo compared to my old plan. Or am I? According to you, the plans are the same price. 🙄

 

[macfacts]

Best way to look at the price is calculate the total for (the phone and service for 2 years), then divide by 24 and you'll get a per month cost.

I'm paying about $60.5 usd/month for my s8+ and 6gb/month.

 

[Oridus]

Best way to look at the price is calculate the total for (the phone and service for 2 years), then divide by 24 and you'll get a per month cost.

I'm paying about $60.5 usd/month for my s8+ and 6gb/month.

Indeed. But this gentleman is claiming that actual service prices haven't decreased from back in the day to the newer plans, which they have.

 

[myscrnnm]

Best way to look at the price is calculate the total for (the phone and service for 2 years), then divide by 24 and you'll get a per month cost.

I'm paying about $60.5 usd/month for my s8+ and 6gb/month.

This brings up a good point. Using a bit of rough math without going in to review my AT&T bills from several years ago, I consistently paid around $80 a month for my service ($40 voice, $30 data, $5 text, 10% corporate discount, plus taxes). So for simplicity, let's take off the discount to make my monthly rate $89. The iPhone 4S was sold at a subsidized price of $199, while the retail price for the phone was $649. So I paid $2,136 over two years for AT&T's service, plus $199 upfront for my 4S. Let's take out the $450 price difference from the $2,136 for service, and then divide by 24 to get the monthly rate (this will give us the result for what I would really be paying if the carrier was in fact diverting the cost of the phone to my monthly bill), and we get just over $70. So that means I would have been paying less than the advertised monthly rates. So clearly it's not the case that AT&T put the cost of the phone into the monthly service charges. Once again, you were forfeiting your freedom of using a different service and guaranteeing the carrier business for two years, that is worth something to them.

 

[Menel]

Those were the days... $199.00 for a 16GB iPhone with a 2 year contract. Now we're paying over $1K. I'm looking at $1229 with tax. This is pretty much the limit for what I will spend on a phone. A few friends said I'm crazy. I could buy a few non-Apple computers for that money. I don't expect to upgrade for at least 3 years.

Yes... 199 plus financing through carrier. They were never just 199.
[doublepost=1509295152][/doublepost]

But think about how much phones would cost if they were made in America at American labor costs instead of the current $2 per hour or whatever Apple pays someone in China to make your phone for $8 in labor and $200 something in parts and then charges $1000 for it adding that $750 profit to their already ridiculous $400,000,000,000+ cash hoard.

And yet somehow Apple has this insane amount of die hard fans that will buy their products no matter the markup... LOL

You clearly dont understand the cost of doing business. Logistics, realestate, R&D personnel, R&D capital for tools, HR, legal, finance, advertising, licensing, etc etc etc.

 

[biscuitsxluv]

I think that people forget we now have a mini computer in our pockets.

Before, we were under contracts so the cost was also worked in to our bills!

 

[macfacts]

Fact: My AT&T monthly plan price did not change for 9 years.

Your service plan price only changes if you change plans. So when your contact expired, you're free to switch plans, shop around for better plans. If you don't switch, of course your fees for service will stay the same.

 

[Oridus]

I think that people forget we now have a mini computer in our pockets.

Before, we were under contracts so the cost was also worked in to our bills!

Be careful when you say that. You'll get met with fierce opposition saying it wasn't. -_- Just read the rest of the thread.

 

[surferfb]

It's actually quite irrelevant. Suggest you read this one written by an adult, not an uninformed blogger:

Let’s try again, this time from CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/paying-full-price-for-your-new-phone-is-a-good-idea/

Consumer advocates say it's also better for customers in the long run to move away from carrier contracts. That's because customers were never really getting a new iPhone or Galaxy smartphone for $200. The actual cost of these devices, around $650, was bundled into their monthly service charges.

"Taking a device subsidy with a two-year contract was like taking a loan, but never being told the terms of the loan," said Matt Wood, policy director at the advocacy group Free Press.

Under these old plans, there was also no incentive to keep your phone for longer than the two-year contract period. Customers who did keep their phones longer were actually penalized for it because they still paid the same monthly fee even though they'd paid off the phone.

Not “adult” enough for you? What about Time? http://time.com/3732923/cell-phone-plans-two-year-contract/

The two-year contract lets you buy an expensive phone (say, the $649 iPhone 6) for a seemingly inexpensive, subsidized price ($199). Naturally, however, the cost of the phone is baked into your monthly fee, and by the time two years have passed, you’ve paid the full price for the device.

Or the Motley Fool. https://www.fool.com/investing/gene...ys-of-subsidized-200-smartphones-nearing.aspx

There were variations between the major carriers -- some let you upgrade to a new phone earlier than the full two-year contract term as long as you signed a new deal -- but this subsidized system was the way the industry worked. Sign a contract, get a phone at a deal price, and pay a little more for service over the life of the deal.

The subsidy wasn't really like that. In most cases, it was more like a deferred payment plan, in which the cost of the phone was spread out over the life of the contract by charging more each month. Still, consumers felt they were getting a deal and were able to get the latest high-end handsets without shelling out their $500 to $700 retail price.

One last one, from the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...our-relationship-with-your-cellphone-company/

Now, new customers will pay for their phones in full upfront or in monthly installments, but separate from their cellular service. (You're also being encouraged to bring your own phone instead of buying a new one, which will eliminate those device payments altogether.) That's a big change from the previous model, in which customers often paid a discounted upfront price for the phone (say, $200 for an iPhone) and then got a single monthly bill that covered the remaining cost of the phone and the service, together.

 

[Steve686]

I know for ATT, they were $200 and then rose to $325 and would decline $5 per month.

I never saw a $450 ETF and I've been with ATT since 2009

Ahh. That’s what it was.

Been with AT&T since the Cingular days and they use to love to handcuff you to the carrier with the specter of that ETF.

 

[myscrnnm]

Your service plan price only changes if you change plans. So when your contact expired, you're free to switch plans, shop around for better plans. If you don't switch, of course your fees for service will stay the same.

Except back in those days, the plans were all based on different combinations of bundling the same individual features. And as far as I can recall, you could change the features of your plan at any time while you were under contract (the only limitation that you were required to have some sort of voice plan, and $30 flat fee unlimited data on AT&T). There was no way of getting a better deal on the same carrier after your contract was up. Which proves my point that the "catch" of paying $199 for a subsidized phone was not that you are paying the remainder of its retail value month-to-month, but that you are guaranteeing the carrier your business for two years.

 

[Oridus]

Except back in those days, the plans were all based on different combinations of bundling the same individual features. And as far as I can recall, you could change the features of your plan at any time while you were under contract (the only limitation that you were required to have some sort of voice plan, and $30 flat fee unlimited data on AT&T). There was no way of getting a better deal on the same carrier after your contract was up. Which proves my point that the "catch" of paying $199 for a subsidized phone was not that you are paying the remainder of its retail value month-to-month, but that you are guaranteeing the carrier your business for two years.

The pricing of the service was planned to be high enough to make up the subsidy whether you upgraded again or not. That's why people who didn't upgrade every two years got the most rotten end of the deal because they remained paying higher service prices for something they weren't buying.

 

[KingslayerG5]

Dude, I remember when iPhones were so easy to pre-order and get it on launch day because it was only on one carrier.

June 24, 2010 was a perfect day for me.

 

[myscrnnm]

The pricing of the service was planned to be high enough to make up the subsidy whether you upgraded again or not. That's why people who didn't upgrade every two years got the most rotten end of the deal because they remained paying higher service prices for something they weren't buying.

But if there are no lower service plans for anyone else (eg anyone paying full price for a new phone or bringing their own phone to the network), then it's really a moot point for the subsidy, since that variable is constant.

 

[Oridus]

But if there are no lower service plans for anyone else (eg anyone paying full price for a new phone or bringing their own phone to the network), then it's really a moot point for the subsidy, since that variable is constant.

Well if that's the case, we all just spent 7 pages arguing over nothing lmao

 

[boltjames]

Your service plan price only changes if you change plans. So when your contact expired, you're free to switch plans, shop around for better plans. If you don't switch, of course your fees for service will stay the same.

When my contract expired it was time to get a new iPhone because it meant that the 3 became the 4, the 4 became the 5, the 5 became the 6. I was never out of contract. I moved from one 2 year plan to another. In almost every instance, I would negotiate my way out of the new phone connection fee. And then I would sell my unlocked $99 iPhone for $299 on Craigslist, usually to someone from a foreign country or someone who couldn't afford a 2 year commitment to a carrier.

Today, the phones aren't $99 and the Craigslist aftermarket has dried up as well due to carriers offering no-money-down iPhone's with payment plans around $25 a month. I don't blame the carriers for ending the subsidies and the discounts and ruining the resale market. But I also don't walk around making believe that I was always paying for it. I never was.

 

[Oridus]

When my contract expired it was time to get a new iPhone because it meant that the 3 became the 4, the 4 became the 5, the 5 became the 6. I was never out of contract. I moved from one 2 year plan to another. In almost every instance, I would negotiate my way out of the new phone connection fee. And then I would sell my unlocked $99 iPhone for $299 on Craigslist, usually to someone from a foreign country or someone who couldn't afford a 2 year commitment to a carrier.

Today, the phones aren't $99 and the Craigslist aftermarket has dried up as well due to carriers offering no-money-down iPhone's with payment plans around $25 a month. I don't blame the carriers for ending the subsidies and the discounts and ruining the resale market. But I also don't walk around making believe that I was always paying for it. I never was.

If that helps you sleep at night, sir, then by all means, believe that. You'd think that someone as bent on knowing the numbers as you would be relieved to know that there's cheaper service plans out there these days and the overall direction of service cost is going down due to the transparency of how you pay for your phone. I think I'll be done with this convo now, though. 🙂

 

[bambooshots]

Well thread confirms it: poor people sickitate me.

😉

 

[eyoungren]

I think that people forget we now have a mini computer in our pockets.

I don't forget.

I just haven't found a way yet to connect my iPhone to a keyboard, mouse and three displays while running the desktop versions of InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator, Acrobat (with Pitstop Pro), Suitcase Fusion 5 and Office. All while being able to access files on our Windows Server and produce camera ready PDFs for our printer.

The iPhone being a mini computer in my pocket does me no good when it can't do any of this. So I use it as a phone.

 

[Steve686]

$199 was the normal upgrade-eligible price you paid up front on a 2 year contract?

Wasn’t there an early upgrade price? Like $299 or $399 for anyone that wanted to start over with a new 2year contract early and get a new phone every year?

 

[iMas70]

Dude, I remember when iPhones were so easy to pre-order and get it on launch day because it was only on one carrier.

June 24, 2010 was a perfect day for me.

All of these phones are AMAZING!!! A total game changer with speeds "x" percent over the previous year. Nothing compares... until next year's phone 🙂