If the iPhone was free, would you get one and be willing to lock into a two-year agreement with AT&T? It’s a question worth thinking about because an article over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog suggests that within a year, we may see a free iPhone available to consumers, with either Apple or AT&T eating the cost. They’ve already dropped the price of the phone significantly, and some say another drop could even come before Christmas. It may actually be feasible to see the price of the iPhone drop all the way down to nothing, eventually.
While I never even considered that Apple could take that route, it’s a possibility. Especially because Apple gets around $360 from AT&T for each iPhone subscriber over the two years that they are locked into a contract. And then when you take into consideration that the manufacturing costs of the iPhone will only continue to drop, Apple could offer the phones for free and still manage to profit off of each phone.
Now this leaves me wondering, should Apple decide to eventually do this, will those who paid for an iPhone demand that Apple reimburse them like they did with the recent price drop? Another big issue would be with the sales of the iPod. If the iPhone were free, I’d have to imagine that the number of iPods that they’re able to sell, more specifically, the new Touch iPod, would significantly decrease because there’s not much difference between the two.
My guess is that it’s highly unlikely that Apple will make the iPhone free, but very likely that they will drop the price further – especially before the second generation iPhone is launched. If by some chance they do end up offering the iPhone for free with a 2-year contract, would you get one?
I would not like to be locked into a contract I don’t want. I’ll get the iphone in another way though
Will never happen, they would be shooting them selfs’ in the foot…
On a side note would love to see Apples reaction to the Gphone if/when it come out.
Before Apple starts making it cheaper in the states they should start selling them at the same price in UK at moment they selling $140 or £70 more. Apple says it is due to its harder to do business in the UK and rest of overprice is the VAT.
People I know can’t believe it haves not got bluetooth or 3G. I know 3G is not big in the states buts it stranded in Europe and UK
One a final note my £50 Sony Ericsson pay as go phone haves better features and is unlocked
What the heck is ‘3G’? And, no I wouldn’t do it either. I REFUSE to commit to a contract for anything. My cellphone is prepaid and my high speed Internet does not require me to have a contract.
Guru- 3g= 3rd generation
As far as contracts go, 1 year is the longest I’d get one; my phones get pretty beat up. I’ve had my current phone for just over a year and it’s pretty much falling apart. Plus, within a year whatever you bought will be obsolete.
Also… I only get flip phones. I don’t want to have to put it in a case all the time to protect the screen. Also, having to lock it before you put it away every time is annoying.
That might just be me, though.
3G simply refers to 3rd generation as DKong said above. It offers much faster speeds (upwards of 10x faster) and are nearly equivalent to standard DSL.
I’ve actually got a flip phone right now, and prior to that I had the other kind (referred to as a candy bar style). While the flip phones are nice I’m ready for something with a slightly larger screen like a Blackberry.
That’s what I was thinking when it first came out. Wait and it could be free. That’s exactly how the RAZR was. That’d really make a great free phone!
I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a PDA-like phone being offered for free though. Of course PDA’s don’t have a service like iTunes where they can bring in a few bucks either.
If they offered it for free w/ 2yr ‘tract.. I’d take it in a heartbeat and I not an Apple nor AT&T fan. That’s a good deal as far as I can see.