AT&T (T) is planning to put some extra shine on the even sleeker new Apple (AAPL) iPhone. When the 3G iPhone is introduced this summer, AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone sales partner with Apple, will cut the price by as much as $200, according to a person familiar with the strategy. AT&T is preparing to subsidize $200 of the cost of a new iPhone, bringing the price down to $199 for customers who sign two-year contracts, the source says. Apple is expected to have two versions of the new iPhone, an 8-gigabit-memory and a 16-gigabit-memory model with price tags widely expected to be $399 and $499. AT&T and Apple declined to comment. At $200, the iPhone would be within reach of a much wider consumer market and give AT&T a strong magnet to pull lucrative customers away from rivals like Verizon Wireless (VZ), Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (DT). The $200 rebate or subsidy would be limited to AT&T customers and not available through Apple’s stores. The new iPhone sold by AT&T will likely be locked or programmed so buyers can’t take the cheaper iPhone to another phone service. Subsidies of $100 to $200 are common in the U.S. phone market, where people buy their phones from their carriers. Lowering the consumer cost of the phone to win two-year subscribers is considered a small investment with a quick payoff. The average monthly wireless bill is around $50, so a phone company can recoup the phone’s cost in a matter of months. The average iPhone user however, runs up a $100 tab each month due to the higher priced data and calling plan. This would give AT&T an even quicker payback on its $200 outlay. But AT&T doesn’t get to keep all the money it collects from its iPhone users. Unlike most other phonemakers (but like BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM)) Apple has a revenue-sharing arrangement that requires telcos like AT&T to pay somewhere between 9% and 25% of the money collected each month from iPhone users. The new iPhone is expected to be released on the one-year anniversary of the original iPhone debut June 27 or thereabouts. A few weeks prior to that launch, Apple is planning to stop supplies of the older model iPhone, according to the source. This will help clear out inventory and stir up demand for the new device. It will also attempt to avoid the public relations pratfall Apple made when it cut the price of the iPhone without warning last year. To soothe the ire among people who bought the iPhone just before the sudden markdown, Apple issued store credits. A few details about the new iPhone have also been confirmed by the source. The new iPhone will be 2.5 mm thinner than the 11.7 mm original. The iPhone will also have a GPS chip for navigation and other location-based services. http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/04/29/att-to-cut-the-price-of-apples-new-iphone/
wow...i have the Blackberry Pearl 8130 right now and love it... been with Sprint for 8 years now and i can hoinestly say that in the last year they have pissed me off terribly...over the last 3 years their customer service has hit a steep decline...i might just have to switch over to check out AT&T... anyone else have a good experience with AT&T !?!?? iPhone !?!?!?
I use Verizon and I'm happy with them. Everyone I know who uses AT&T feels the same way. In fact, the only people I know who really hate their cell phone provider are Sprint and T-Mobile users.
WOW. that makes things tough. I wish emails were sent directly to the phone. 3g speed for 200$??? that's hard to pass up.
I love my iPhone. I'll probably get one of the 3G ones when it's available. I've heard all the bad things about ATT, but I've always had good reception and no problems with their bureaucracy.
i currently have a $420 credit on my Sprint phone for them NOT GETTING MY PLAN RIGHT when i first got my Blackberrys... on Jan 2nd me and my wife went and got our phones...let's just say that they were charging me 4 months worth of text messages...in those 4 months i managed to rack up $420 worth of texts... i went to the Sprint Store on 59 and chewed some freakin ass...Assistant Store manager credited me $420 after "our discussion"...
I doubt this is true. The source of this rumor was also the same guy that said the original iPhone would come with a year and half of free service.
Earliest, next summer, AT&T has exclusive 2 year rights when it came out, last summer, June 29th I believe
I am not sure about a single phone plan, but I have a family plan with four phones and my brother has the Iphone. We get 1400 anytime minutes, free nights and weekends, free mobile to mobile, 200 texts and internet on my brother's line and it comes out to $148 dollars a month. I also have insurance on all the lines so minus the insurance, the plan itself is costing us $128. I think thats a great deal since we never go over our anytime minutes so we never get overcharged over anything.
i have a unlocked iphone with tmobile and i pay about35 bucks a month, yah im on the family plan. unlimited text messaging, and only pay 6bucks for net. i love it
When I got my iPhone last year, I did the "all 9's" SSN trick to setup GoPhone prepaid service (because I didn't want a freaking contract with my unsubsidized phone). I'm not sure that loophole works anymore. At any rate, I'm paying $68 total a month for 300 minutes, which works fine for me. The only incredibly annoying thing is that, after each call, I get a prepaid pop-up message telling me how much money I have left on my account. Drives me up the wall, but hey, at least I'm not stuck in a contract.
It's $20. I had the data/text package with my previous cell phone, which ran $10 a month, so the upgrade ended up costing me an extra $10 per. I have the cheapest plan, and it doesn't cost anywhere near $100/mo.
