Anybody else find it weird that AT&T is moving up eligibility dates?
Clearly this benefits Apple, as one of the biggest groups of iPhone buyers are previous iPhone buyers. In fact I was unable to get a 3GS last year because of eligibility dates and thus decided to skip it entirely.
However note that this costs AT&T big bucks, bucks that are already counted and spent. They subsidize the cost of smartphones by charging extra across the required two-year plan. It’s like a loan. When they move up eligibility dates it’s like just forgiving the rest of the payments on a loan. And are we talking about for millions of people here? Hundreds of thousands?
Why would they do this? Give up their own money, to make Apple more money? Immediately I think of the iPad data plan they decided to stop offering one month after the 3G iPad came out, despite all the press around the plan. Could there have been a back-room deal here?
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