oooh hoo not long now

Anybody have any idea how they're going to treat current subscribers? I haven't seen a thing about it yet.

They're being really quiet about service costs, and how they will handle current vs. new subscribers. A bit scary this late in the game.

It makes sense that they're limiting distribution to just AT&T-owned and Apple stores initially. They have to draw the line somewhere to ensure there's enough phones to go around at each location.

I choose to be optimistic about this-- they're remaining mum about rates and plans for the same reason Apple keeps revisions under its hat: to keep sales of current offerings from drying up in the interim.

It's not a complete stretch to imagine that one of the things Apple negotiated with AT&T are special rates and plans for the iPhone, as part of the general intent of making a mobile information/communications device like the iPhone a mass market (consumer) item instead of a niche (business) player. Attractive rates would go a long way to assuaging price-point sales resistance
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Even $20 off the going monthly rate, after a year, would amount to the "subsidy" of other high end phones, and it just gets better thereafter.

Of course, that's the very thing that makes this scenario less likely-- the carriers know that the phones are just the crack pipe, and the money is in moving the rock. Sure, we can make you a great deal on that pipe!

If Steve actually managed to get some movement out of AT&T on this front, it will mean the RDF has swollen to world destroying proportions.

I would think the same way apple treats it loyal customers. Oh, wait, you were hoping for good news, huh?


Keeping the lid on it doesn't wash. The lid's been removed long ago. Anyone even remotely interested knows it exists and are waiting impatiently for it. I don't think people are going "Well, I don't know how much the monthly fee is going to be, so rather then wait a month, I'm going to get suckered into another phone instead"

And it isn't a stretch to think Apple got a special pricing deal. However, it is a stretch to think it would be a 'lower' price. AT&T isn't going to want to go cheaper, when they have to foot some cash to apple to boot. Everyone keeps thinking Apple is some altruistic company looking out for their customers. That's a joke. They're a corporation looking at the bottom line. And one thing they've got their eyes on is, in your analogy, getting a piece of that crack dealer's take. You work together, offer something the public wants (better rock!), and keep the prices high!

First, my keeping it under raps thing was about the possibility of special rates for the iPhone dinging sales of other phones, with other rates, before they have a phone to sell. The rate's the thing, not the phone itself.

But more generally, the iPhone is a new platform for Apple. And it is a platform that is utterly reliant on ubiquitous connections to actually do what it was designed to do.

So it certainly is in Apple's (greedy) best interests to try and make sure that people actually use it as designed-- and that means bandwidth. Ideally, relatively cheap, flat-rate bandwidth.

If the iPhone is expensive to buy and (relatively) expensive to operate, it will negatively impact uptake of the platform.

Thus, anything Apple can do (and I'm not saying they have done this) to keep the TCOO down is all to the better, from their perspective.

Naturally, that is exactly the opposite of AT&T's perspective, so I would deem it a long shot, at best. But I don't think it's totally out of the question.... after all, "reinventing the cell phone" is as much about how the service is structured as the phone itself.

you gotta buy the data plan $39.99 a month
you gotta buy the minutes plan $39.99 a month

THEN you get the cell phone... remember it's NOT an iPhone, it's a CELL PHONE.

so it's basically a $499 phone with a $959 "fee" per year attached. even if you don't use it on AT&T's network.

so it's bad news unless they fix that before June 29th.

Are those the current AT&T rates? How much talk time for that, and is the data unlimited? My thinking is that if there is any way Apple could have negotiated a combo deal for something like $60/month, that would be the sweet spot.

The question is, could AT&T have been persuaded that giving up that $240/yr per subscriber would be offset by a big increase in users? Because I would assume that would be the pitch: "We're going to do to cell phones what we did to MP3 players, if you want to get in on the ground floor of that action we'll need some concessions....."

got the preso last night.. i think that is for 900 "rolling" minutes... and unlimited data... not sure about text...

but all total, it's a rip off... it should be free minutes via Skype, unlimited data within range of 802.11 and free text.

how AT&T can charge for "free" services that are "free" on the internet is going to be a hard sell when they meet the "computer world".

Wait, are you saying that those are the actual rates that will be offered with the iPhone?