iPhone

[Knightslugger]

still, something about that doesn't sound right...  that's almost too good of a deal... 

[Shmi]

still, something about that doesn't sound right...  that's almost too good of a deal... 

But consider how many new customers this will bring to Cingular, and it doesn't seem so absurd that they would agree to this kind of deal. $9.99 an album on iTunes also sounded too good to be true, but they made it work even when labels wanted Apple to charge more.

[Liquidmark]

It is decided...

Liquidmark will get the iPhone

[Knightslugger]

Hold on here... Cingular is $39.99/mo. for starters.  start adding services... hold on now, we're starting to get expensive.

just for the basic talking plan it's nearly $1000 bucks full term.  if your math plays out, that's half price.  fine, but what about the other services?  Gotta have EDGE, which means you have to get a data package.

When you get the phone and the package to use it like Steve was, i seriously doubt Cingular is willing to loose over 1500 bucks just for apple customers.

Per Month NORMAL charges (all in USD) Typical

Talk plan 900 Minutes: $59.99
Enhanced VoiceMail: $1.99
SmartPhone Connect 5MB: $9.99
SMS starter package 200: $4.99

Total: $76.96/mo * 24 mo = $1847.04 pre tax

BULL SHIT this phone comes with service...

[Rose]

What's getting to me is which Canadian company is going to acquire the iPhone? Cingular doesn't come up to Canada, or Calgary at the very least and I'd actually like an iPhone as well but really, it depends on the company.

[Shmi]

But they're not really losing $1500, since the people buying iPhones won't really be buying it for Cingular, they'll just be forced into a contract with them. In other words, they're probably not already potential customers. The people who buy iPhones probably buy them because they're cool products, not because they want Cingular. So by giving Cingular exclusivity of the iPhone, theyre bringing in potential millions of new customers that would never have gone to Cingular to begin with. Then consider family plans and renewal of subscriptions and Cingular's got millions new customers bringing in even more customers, and they increase their total hold on the cellular market. I think Cingular would be losing more money by not cutting Apple a deal on services. Apple has sold 100 million iPods. If they can do half as well within a few years with the iPhone, that's 50 million new customers for Cingular, 50 million new customers they would have a real hard time acquiring without Apple. IMO...

Anyhow, there must be some sort of logic behind the economics, or else Cingular wouldn't ever have agreed to this.

[illitrate23]

BULL SHIT this phone comes with service...

seems insane doesn't it, but it was up there on the big screen in the presentation


mind you, i wouldn't be at all surprised to see that it doesn't include any of those extras (cept the voicemail) or free call time or anything

maybe Apple are taking a hit to keep the price so low to make it affordable and worth people being early adopters. we all know the horror stories of people who get the very first versions of new mac designs and so on (although so far i've been very fortunate to have avoided those) so how much more do we need to worry about the first generation of iPhones being full of bugs?

[Shmi]

I wonder if they'll sell Applecare for the iPhone...

Also, Cisco is officially suing Apple over the iPhone name. It was bound to happen...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070110/ap_on_hi_te/cisco_apple

[Liquidmark]

I wonder if they'll sell Applecare for the iPhone...

*Liquidmark hastily fumbles around while looking for wallet*

[SPNKr Punk]

I wonder if they'll sell Applecare for the iPhone...

Also, Cisco is officially suing Apple over the iPhone name. It was bound to happen...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070110/ap_on_hi_te/cisco_apple

I'm sure the CEO of Cisco was just dancing around on the head of a pin, just waiting to be ignored by Apple.

Can apple call it, simply, The Phone?

[Knightslugger]

BULL SHIT this phone comes with service...

seems insane doesn't it, but it was up there on the big screen in the presentation

And Cingular has it plastered all over their website... WITH OTHER PHONES.  basically, you can get this phone at this price IF you agree to a two year service contract.  otherwise you WON'T get the iPhone (or the Apple Phone if Cisco has their way) for the above price.

[pfc]

Can apple call it, simply, The Phone?

I'm hoping they call it Sosumi.

[Liquidmark]

Yes, YES...That is perfect!

The Sosumi!

That has a nice sound to it.

[Shmi]

more questions answered by Cingular:

http://crunchgear.com/2007/01/10/apple-iphone-faq/

[illitrate23]

I'm hoping they call it Sosumi.

hahahahaha - that would be so awesome if they did