AT&T to slash 3G iPhone price to beat unlockers?
Making it cheaper to stick with the official network
AT&T is to follow the example of O2 in the UK and Germany's T-Mobile and chop the price of the iPhone. But not the current model - it's going to subsidise the anticipated 3G version to the tune of $200.
So claims a Fortune magazine report citing a single source.
The $200 discount will take the price of an 8GB 3G iPhone to $199, it's said, implying the new version will be a direct replacement for the two current iPhones. The 16GB 3G iPhone is said to have been priced at $499 before the subsidy.
The discount is almost certainly an attempt not only to draw more users to AT&T's network, but also a strike against buyers who plan to unlock the new handset and use it with another network. The subsidy makes the price of the handset plus the airtime package more attractive. It's tied to a two-year monthly airtime contract.
AT&T's deal will kick in when the 3G iPhone is launched, almost certainly in June, a couple of weeks after its anticipated announcement at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on 9 June.
Fortune's mole maintains Apple will stop shipping the existing iPhone round about then. The Deep Throat also claimed the iPhone will be 21 per cent thinner than the original, despite packing GPS technology as well as 3G.
Last week, it emerged that Carphone Warehouse and O2's plan to discount the price of the 8GB iPhone by £100 has already caused them to sell all their remaining stocks of the handset.
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COMMENTS
No AT&T At Any Price
No subsidy is worth having to deal with AT&T.
@Lee
Marmite - i'm willing to bet he'll say he has, but hasn't actually used an iPhone.
I like HTC too, i've had an M600, M700 and TyTn II (all on Orange) and they've steadily got better... the only thing i'll miss moving to an iPhone is the Sat Nav, but if the rumours of the GPS are true then i'm in heaven and will buy one on launch day (to be honest i probably will anyway!!)... hell even if it's just support for external Bluetooth GPS devices i'll be happy.
But to call an iPhone rubbish is plain ridiculous, it may be more expensive than other phones but the spec is excellent, sure it's restricted but for good reasons in my view....
As for the actual point (i think) you were trying to make, they couldn't subsidise the phone as Apple wouldn't let them... also they are expected to give a percentage of network earnings for iPhones back to Apple so they probably wanted to maximise their earning potential... now they've maybe decided it's doing well enough to now allow some subsidy.
Did I miss something?
<confused> USD499? Really? I must have blinked at some point - shouldn't that be GBP499?
Not wanting to start any flames, just *really* confused about the prices.
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