Hi Dave,
I highly doubt that at least in the short to medium term Apple will suddenly start to sell a new iPhone for $399 or $499. Apple is one of the few companies who is actually making a good margin on their products meaning unlike Amazon which basically gives a Kindle Fire away at cost or even below cost to get people to use their service, Apple sells the iPad at a price where they make money. Keep in mind that if they sold an iPhone for a greatly reduced price, people would no longer buy an iPod Touch and would expect iPad and iPad Mini prices to come down as well. I somehow don't forsee any changes in how big carriers do business and believe they will continue to offer contracts and subsidized phones. Keep in mind that a carrier like the one mentioned may offer an unlimited plan for $49 with no contract, but they will not give you a 16 Gb iPhone 5 for $199, instead you have to pay $649 and buy one at full price. The math is easy: Over 2 years you spend 24 month times $49 a month = $1,176 + $649 for the iPhone which means a total of $1,825. Now assume you are on contract and spend $80 a month, the total is 24 times $80 = $1,920 + $199 for the phone = $2,119. So, yes, the contract does cost you $294 more over 2 years given you do actually have a $80 plan, if you find one that is $70 which maybe gives you 2 Gig of data and limited voice, but maybe it's all you need then the total would be $1,879 over 2 years which is only $64 more. For many people it's easier to spend an extra $20 or $30 a months without having to come up with the high upfront cost. It's really no different than any sort of financing, people buy all sorts of stuff they probably shouldn't because they really don't have the money so they finance it and pay every month and in the end if you add it all up you pay hundreds or even thousands more than had you saved up the money to buy an item outright. And what I haven't even thrown into the calculation is the fact that no matter if you buy the phone outright or on contract, it's worth the same at the end of the 24 months if you sell it. However, if you paid $650 for the phone, you are maybe more inclined to keep it for another year or so because you spend all that money for it and you would have to again spend the same to get a new phone. If you only paid $200 for it, you can probably sell it for that or very close to that since you can ask for an official unlock which makes it easy to sell the phone. Then your new phone is basically paid for by the old one. I had bought both my iPhone 4 and 4S unlocked directly from Apple since here in Canada you can do this and you can get it right away at the release date in that way. However, now carriers here have to unlock your phone after 90 days and I think I heard this maybe changing to 30 days. This takes away one reason to buy an unlocked phone at full price which is the fact that if you travel and want to put in somebody elses SIM you have to have an unlocked phone. I think it makes sense and actually don't see why carriers lock their phone at all, after all, the fact that they have to let you unlock it doesn't mean you can get out of the contract. If you do that you still have to pay out the contract which menas essentially that you have to pay them back the amount they subsidized your phone for. Regards, Sieghard From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dave Baker Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2013 1:34 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: A great new carier for your iPhone: unlimited everything $49 per month! Awesome, so they do this without a contract also. And they take money off your bill when you get friends to sign up? I'm just glad to see competition in the contract-free unlimited-data mobile space. I especially think this is important for us using these recognition and GPS apps. I rarely talk using my phone, but with family members deployed in the Armed Services, i find it nice if they want to call and can't use Skype for whatever reason, I don't have to worry about it. Personally, I think there'll be a time when carriers find it in their best business interest to ditch the contracts, and handset manufacturers, including Apple, will find ways to bring costs down without the subsidies. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
