"Apple Squeezes Orange To Subsidize iPhone Pricing," will AT&T soondo this as well?

Interesting. It seems like Apple is willing to give up its payments from
carriers in order to jump start sluggish iPhone sales. This has already
happened in Italy, and will likely happen in France and Germany as well.

If they did this in the U.S., it would put the squeeze on all the iPhone
unlocking as well.

SMS wrote:
> Interesting. It seems like Apple is willing to give up its payments from
> carriers in order to jump start sluggish iPhone sales. This has already
> happened in Italy, and will likely happen in France and Germany as well.
>
> If they did this in the U.S., it would put the squeeze on all the iPhone
> unlocking as well.

Oops, forgot the link,
"http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/apple-squeezes.html"

SMS wrote:
> Interesting. It seems like Apple is willing to give up its payments from
> carriers in order to jump start sluggish iPhone sales. This has already
> happened in Italy, and will likely happen in France and Germany as well.
>
> If they did this in the U.S., it would put the squeeze on all the iPhone
> unlocking as well.


Hmm, perhaps I'm missing something here. Would you tell me how this
would in any way hinder iphone unlocking?

Anthony Guzzi wrote:
> SMS wrote:
>> Interesting. It seems like Apple is willing to give up its payments
>> from carriers in order to jump start sluggish iPhone sales. This has
>> already happened in Italy, and will likely happen in France and
>> Germany as well.
>>
>> If they did this in the U.S., it would put the squeeze on all the
>> iPhone unlocking as well.
>
>
> Hmm, perhaps I'm missing something here. Would you tell me how this
> would in any way hinder iphone unlocking?

Right now in the U.S. there is no contract requirement to purchase an
iPhone, yet the iPhone sells for a relatively low price. If they switch
to a sales model where a contract is required in order to get a good
price, they will significantly jack up the price of the iPhone sold with
no contract, making it unattractive. Few people are going to pay $700
for an unsubsidized iPhone since you can buy a much more full featured
device from HTC for that much.

OTOH, Apple will lose a lot of iPhone sales if they do this, and they
may decide to continue feigning disapproval of unlocking while not doing
much to stop it.