I hope AT&T doesn't follow, at least not for a very long while.
Verizon kills off service contracts, smartphone subsidies
Verizon kills off service contracts, smartphone subsidies
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VZ Will Drop Phone Contracts, End Discounted Phones
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As usual, Verizon has introduced new plans that are just as bad as the pervious. No more family plans? A large portion of their customers are family plans...genius
So you can end up giving AT&T more of your money over the 2 year contract rather than purchase the phone at full retail and get a cheaper rate plan from them? I mean, it could amount to the same price either way. But in most cases it ends up being much less money spent in the long run when you buy the phone unsubsidized and get a lower rate plan.
Not if I (and others) have a large corporate discount and grandfathered cheap voice/text and unlimited data plans. If I net out the subsidy contribution, I'm paying less than $47/month for unlimited data.
Some ongoing discussion of it all at https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...artphone-subsidies-for-new-customers.1906189/
Verizon always tries to find more ways to give less and get more money from their customers.
This move doesn't surprise me at all.
That's why T Mobile will keep closing the gap from the 2 greedy carriers to a consumer friendly and great deals network.
That's not the case with everyone's plan, fan discount and when unlimited data plans come into play.
Everyone keeps playing that wrong tune that its less money unsubsidized and lower monthly rate but that's far from the actual truth....
I did look for an existing thread before posting. Why it's under "iOS Blog Discussion" is beyond me. It's a wireless provider story.
Probably because no more fitting section than that here, and given that as far as Apple goes at most this applies to iOS devices.
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I guess my definition of "fitting" doesn't fit with MR conventions. Linking a carrier's equipment sales and service agreement policies to iOS devices is a bridge too far.
Given that carrier policies affect quite a few people with iOS devices (and given that iOS devices represent quite a bit of Apple's business), doesn't seem all that unrelated. (Even you seemed to have deemed it worthy enough to be posted about in the iPhone section.)
I buy my iPhones outright and use them on a prepaid service. For me, unsubsidized is much cheaper.
As far as linkage, if one tries hard enough, one can say that apples and zebras are not at all unrelated. This forum has a specific prefix for "Carrier." It seemed to logical to look for and post that story here. I'm not saying posting in the other thread was wrong, just not intuitive to a bumpkin like me. I prefer specificity to generality. YMMV.
For you.
For me with a family plan of 4 and fan discount subsidized is better. And 3 lines have unlimited data.
So works great.
I see. Still, with T-Mobile and now Verizon, wouldn't this change mean more than half of iPhone users in the U.S. would not be under contract?
AT&T subsidized phone are only available at ATT stores, not Apple Store. And Sprint is such small potatoes it would make sense for them to start listing the u subsidized price and then say something like "see carrier for specific monthly costs".
Until 8/13, yes. After 8/13 seems like subsidized contract option won't be on the table anymore.
Sounds like current customers who want to continue to get a subsidized phone will have that option
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/08/11/technology/ap-us-tec-verizon-new-phone-plans.html?_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/08/11/technology/ap-us-tec-verizon-new-phone-plans.html?_r=1
They'll just advertise them as "$0 down". Which will probably help them sell even more Iphones.
Whatever they do, I can almost guarantee they won't go back to listing the full price of the phone. They'll either stick with the subsidized prices anyway, or like stated above, say something along the lines of "Starts at $0 down- see carrier for details".
Right, the financing option will be the main one that gets advertised.
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Makes no difference to me, I've always paid mine full price for unlocked phone. This only affects those who finance their phones. Like the guy above, they'll probably put it as "zero down, no interest for 24 months"