Full FeedAT&T may follow O2; offer free iPhones
With O2’s recent announcement that they will be offering 8 and 16 GB iPhones free with certain plans, AT&T may be following suit. While Apple and Steve were busy talking about the extremely well-received 3G iPhone, AT&T was announcing to its investors that its revenue sharing deal with Apple had ended.
From CNET:
At first glance, that development may not matter to most. After all, that agreement really only affected Apple and AT&T and consumers were still forced to pay the same price regardless of the revenue sharing. But if you take another look, you might find that there may be more to this story than meets the eye.
After AT&T’s announcement, speculation started on whether or not AT&T would remain as the iPhone exclusive carrier. This, among other things, may be the benefit for the consumer from the end of the deal. Back in April, I reported about how great it would be if Apple ended AT&T’s exclusive carrier deal with the iPhone. I, for one, cannot get an iPhone because there is almost no AT&T service here in Vermont.
Other portions of the deal may benefit the consumer, and maybe AT&T somewhat, but definitely not Apple. Now that there are no revenue sharing deals between the two companies, AT&T could put a subsidy on the iPhones that are sold through them and make them cheaper, or maybe even free. This would just be the icing on the cake if the iPhone went to other carriers, such as Verizon, and was free at the same time.
What do you think of the rumors? No matter how cool it would be to get an iPhone in Vermont, I am taking these rumors with a fairly sizable grain of salt. Do you think that these rumors hold any water?
Via [CNET News]
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All of the available evidence suggests that there will NEVER be a CDMA version of the iPhone, domestically or internationally, and that there will never, therefore, be an iPhone on the Sprint/Nextel or Verizon networks.
It’s much more likely that T-Mobile USA will be added as an additional carrier, and chances of that are quite slim, according to the available evidence.
on June 11, 2008 at 11:10 AM - LINK