My pricing theory based on absolutely nothing

[Twiztedklown316]

My theory is that since apple removed the two year contract off their commercials, they may no longer be 'requiring' two year commitment. Perhaps they have decided that you can go to the store buy an iphone, and leave without any kind of contract or commitment. But what if they've reduced the price of the monthly fees to some incredibly low price, but only those customers who sign a two-year contract on the day they purchase their phones will get the discount.

So in other words.
You could buy an iphone and use it as an ipod, and perhaps have wifi capabilities (not edge), but you would have to then pay month to month at a higher (normal fees) price.
So those that purchase their iphone with a two year commitment then get the luxury of low monthly bills.

seems concievable, what do you all think?

 

[jamesybsu]

I would think AT&T has some kind of contract with Apple saying Apple can't provide its own service of some kind, but who knows, I'd buy an Iphone just to say I have one

 

[gr8tfly]

It requires a 2 year contract. It costs $499 or $599. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/314198/ and others.

 

[fenixx]

I love your thread title!

I doubt that will happen though.

 

[applehero]

Contract is 100%, must sign on for 2 years to get iPhone.

 

[meagain]

OK - are we assuming a minimum $80 a month? That's what I'm going on right now.

 

[Troyte83]

yea i will figure that it will be 70-80 a month after taxes

 

[puckhead193]

yea i will figure that it will be 70-80 a month after taxes

just for data? i was thinking like $30/40 plus minutes

 

[meagain]

For the whole shebang. $80 ?????

 

[zap2]

OK - are we assuming a minimum $80 a month? That's what I'm going on right now.

Nope....much lower for data only...30ish. I'm betting/hoping AT&T gets an iPhone plan on the cheap side

 

[meagain]

So maybe $70 for everything....

 

[applehero]

For the average plan for an individual, I'm banking on $70-$80 after all is said and done. Doesn't really matter for me as I am going with the family Unity plan.

 

[SAMTATSICPRO]

FOR DATA: I'm thinking 29.99 limited or 39.99 unlimited with 2 years!

 

[Twiztedklown316]

My biggest worry is that this product has been marketed towards business in the beginning, but now people are complaining that there isn't a business discount, and that the keyboard may not function well for business uses. So that means that the business community may not be the ones buying the phone (atleast right away) the ones who will most likely will be people 16-30 ish in age, many of whom wont be able to cough up $70-80 a month to get the full use out of the phone, so that means that that market may end shrinking.

Hopefully apple has thing priced right, because im 21, and most of my friends wouldn't pay both 600 for a phone and nearly one hundred a month for a cellphone even if it is a smart phone.

I know apple hasn't released details yet, and I know they would have looked at it from all angles, I just hope it comes out all right for APPLE. Because if they take a hit from this phone, it could hurt them for a little while

 

[NewSc2]

I agree. $70-80/month is a bit too much for a phone. Looking at the minutes, I'd probably go for the 900min. version, which is $60, and adding on a $30-40 data plan is a lot per month.

If they could come out with a 500-600min. w/ unlimited data plan around $60-70/month, that's doable for me, but it doesn't look likely. I doubt they'd give iPhone users that much of a monthly discount over Treo and Blackberry subscribers.

 

[AppleIntelRock]

My biggest worry is that this product has been marketed towards business in the beginning, but now people are complaining that there isn't a business discount, and that the keyboard may not function well for business uses. So that means that the business community may not be the ones buying the phone (atleast right away) the ones who will most likely will be people 16-30 ish in age, many of whom wont be able to cough up $70-80 a month to get the full use out of the phone, so that means that that market may end shrinking.

Hopefully apple has thing priced right, because im 21, and most of my friends wouldn't pay both 600 for a phone and nearly one hundred a month for a cellphone even if it is a smart phone.

I know apple hasn't released details yet, and I know they would have looked at it from all angles, I just hope it comes out all right for APPLE. Because if they take a hit from this phone, it could hurt them for a little while

A survey was taken and the average age for an iPhone buyer is 31 years of a age. I know plenty of people around that age who are HAPPY to buy an iPhone. The people who can afford one, aren't necessarily Blackberry and Treo users- no everyone that makes good money needs a "business" phone, in fact... most people dont.

 

[David R]

I agree. $70-80/month is a bit too much for a phone. Looking at the minutes, I'd probably go for the 900min. version, which is $60, and adding on a $30-40 data plan is a lot per month.

I agree. I'd also go for the 900 minutes plan since I use my phone more during the week day than evenings and weekends. Adding one of their data plans just becomes too prohibitive for me. At $20 for data, it'd come up to about $80 a month which is already close to $20 more than I pay with T-Mobile for 1000 minutes plus unlimited data.

At $30 for data I'd have to do a lot of soul searching before I sign up for 2 years. At $40, the phone has to be insanely great for me to be willing to pay $100 a month to use this phone which is already somewhat limited in my eyes (no MMS and no real 3rd party apps.)

It is because of all of this that I hope the data plan is the $19.99 plan, or that they come up with reasonable iPhone-only packages.

And those plans better include unlimited text messages or a very high number of them. Because I'm not paying more for text messages on top of an overpriced data plan.

 

[mashinhead]

your theory isn't based on absolutly nothing, it's based on the fact they took the '2yr contract required' disclaimer off the ads. Though i'm not sure why people theorize these sorts of things. it's so egocentric, you only consider apple's perspective on everything. At&t signed a deal for a reason, they want to make money off the iphone too, i would think, hence the 2 year contract. So i would file that under inconcievable.

If you guys don't like it, there is only one person to blame. Steve Jobs, because that there iphone could have been sold sim free, and unlocked at all apple stores, in all nations, with the settings for every global GSM provider already on the phone so all you had to do was buy it, stick your sim card in, have the phone recognize the provider and automatically choose the right settings and have it work instantly on whatever your local network is, if it it weren't for visual voicemail. It was the only feature that prevented this whole thing, becuase it was the only one they actually needed a provider to implement. you wouldn't have had to sign a contract, and that would have been the most revolutionary thing they could have done, cos that would have changed the entire US cell phone industry forever, overnight.

 

[Grimace]

If you guys don't like it, there is only one person to blame. Steve Jobs, because that there iphone could have been sold sim free, and unlocked at all apple stores, in all nations, with the settings for every global GSM provider already on the phone so all you had to do was buy it, stick your sim card in, have the phone recognize the provider and automatically choose the right settings and have it work instantly on whatever your local network is, if it it weren't for visual voicemail. It was the only feature that prevented this whole thing, becuase it was the only one they actually needed a provider to implement. you wouldn't have had to sign a contract, and that would have been the most revolutionary thing they could have done, cos that would have changed the entire US cell phone industry forever, overnight.

Ummm....not really. Apple makes certain that the hardware and software (think Carrier side too) work flawlessly together. Opening it up right away would be a huge problem for all sides. Starting off with one carrier is the way to go. I wish they chose Verizon but that's only b/c I'm on it now. Having a quad-band phone helps with making this thing international.

Apple has to start somewhere. Visual voicemail is not to blame. Opening up a very complex product to everyone and then *supporting* it would be a nightmare for Apple. Patience.

 

[coffey7]

You would be better off keeping your superior working Verizon or sprint phone and bringing a laptop with you. surfing the web on a small screen without flash is not my idea of fun. $500-$600 is a lot to spend on a fancy ipod/phone. If its $80 a month you better add $30 for taxes(911 tax, state fees, franchise tax etc). The companys always lie and add tons of hidden charges.

 

[mashinhead]

Ummm....not really. Apple makes certain that the hardware and software (think Carrier side too) work flawlessly together. Opening it up right away would be a huge problem for all sides. Starting off with one carrier is the way to go. I wish they chose Verizon but that's only b/c I'm on it now. Having a quad-band phone helps with making this thing international.

Apple has to start somewhere. Visual voicemail is not to blame. Opening up a very complex product to everyone and then *supporting* it would be a nightmare for Apple. Patience.

opening it up wouldn't mean it wouldn't work. it would mean that i wouldn't have uniform performance results due to it being used on different networks, with different coverage areas and speeds. Plus the only thing that would be vastly different in performance would be the internet speeds when using you providers network vs wifi. but i'm sure it would work just fine. the iphone is compicated and does a lot of things but not all those things rely on the network or are limited to the phone aspect of the deviec. People put sim differnt sim cards in different phones in different places on different networks all the time and it works. Plus it would naturally be programmed to handle these situation for which apple usually considers and does the extra leg work to have it work properly.

And apple did choose verizon, verizon didn't bite.

 

[psingh01]

This phone comes out in 2 weeks and no one knows any real details about service plans. I hope it is not a secret until launch day, cause as it stands I have no intention of being surprised at the cash register, I just won't bother getting one!

 

[AppleIntelRock]

This phone comes out in 2 weeks and no one knows any real details about service plans. I hope it is not a secret until launch day, cause as it stands I have no intention of being surprised at the cash register, I just won't bother getting one!

I TOTALLY AGREE!

This is just SAD. These aren't secrets apple, don't make us f****** beg you on how much we need to PAY YOU. C'mon, this is all starting to make me sick.

 

[Gonzlobo]

This phone comes out in 2 weeks and no one knows any real details about service plans. I hope it is not a secret until launch day, cause as it stands I have no intention of being surprised at the cash register, I just won't bother getting one!

If all details aren't out by 6/22, I'm inclined to believe the 6/29 date slips.

 

[Twiztedklown316]

If apple postpones the launch past the 29th, that would definitely force this product to be considered a failure.
So I dont think under and circumstance would it be delayed past the 29th.

The only exception to that would be if a few stores for some reason don't get their shipments, which in all likely hood will happen at at least one store.