The iRumor du Jour: Buy an iPhone, Get 18 Months “Free” Service
Where do these rumors get started?
MacRumors would be the place. Actually, MacRumors is quoting Jim Cramer’s RealMoney.com, which indicates that the new AT&T (Cingular) is so anxious to use iPhone to gain market share, that it is willing to give away 18 months of free service with the purchase of a new iPhone.
This would certainly help to convince reluctant carrier-switchers to move to AT&T (Cingular). It’s also led to the suggestion that the $500 entry price point for the iPhone is NOT a subsidized price; that this is the actual full retail price of the phone. The theory is, if AT&T (Cingular) doesn’t subsidize the price of the phone as it usually does, it can subsidize the price of the service.
AT&T also wouldn’t want people just to buy the phones at retail, and then go somewhere else (like T-Mobile) for service. Keeping the monthly service cost low for iPhone buyers helps guarantee they’ll stick with AT&T long enough to appreciate them (they hope!).
It’s led to another interesting suggestion: The fact that the $500 entry level Apple iPhone isn’t subsidized, Apple may introduce some other products, like a touchscreen iPod (without a phone). A subsidy on iPhones would cause the phones to sell for less than a touchscreen iPod without a phone, and that wouldn’t make much sense.
iPhone, subsidy, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile
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