I have read all about the fact that the 3G was not subsidised and thats why contracts would have to be bought out. So, why ‘o why did o2 not think about this froma commercial point of view back when the 3G was released and just charged their customers for the new handset which most people would have accepted and took out their new 18 month contracts thus enabling o2 to do the same this time without upsetting every single iphone customer.
Also, have they thought about who is going to be queuing at their stores on the 19th June??? Lets face it in the last two years everyone who can afford to buy an iphone or is willing to pay the money for it already has one (obviously with a few exceptions) so who do o2 think is going to buy their new hansets if they alienate all their current iphone customers.
This is just poor commercial nouse.
Just another thought.
I paid £269 (approx. cant remember exactly) for the first gen. iphone. I then paid £45 per month for the cotract for 12 months (of 18 months). I then got a free upgrade to the 3G and paid the £45 per month for the following 12 months (again on an 18 month contract) bringing me to now. If indeed within this current contract part of my £45 monthly cost was to subsidise for the lack of me paying for the 3G hndset thus explaining why o2 want me to see out the rest of my 18 month contract then why was i paying the same £45 per month on the original contract????
Would it not then be logic that i would have paid for the subsidised 3G handset in the first term contract therefore every handset after that would be paid from the previous contract??
Just food for thought. |
There are several sides to this debacle.
First off, AT&T are not offering free iPhone upgrades. They're offering one-off payment of $18 to renew existing contracts for existing customers wishing to upgrade to the new iPhones.
The customer still has to pay for the handset.
Second, renewals mean Apple wins, because they're a good incentive for people to upgrade; new phone sales look good on the balance sheet and reducing the number of 'legacy' device owners is good for progress. Progress is important, as nobody wants to support old hardware forever. O2's refusal to offer a renewal programme hurts us, and it hurts Apple. This is where they are wrong, and if we're lucky it will hurt them.
Third, carriers count subscribers. There is a sizable cost associated with acquiring a customer. This means each of us is worth, say, £100 to the carrier before we're even a customer. Once they have you, they want to keep you as long as possible - hence the gradual move from 12 to 24 month contracts. The flaw of course is that the carrier makes money from calls, data and monthly subscriptions...so there's little incentive for them to offer new hardware (which they have to subsidise, i.e. pay for) within a 12 month cycle.
With normal phones, this wouldn't be an issue since the cost is lower and competition is high - a lot of handsets such as HTC brands are OEM tailored to specific carriers, i.e. Vodafone, Orange, etc.. The crunch is that iPhone owners (specifically Apple die-hards and converts) are an offshoot of the iPod generation, which is famous for buying the next best thing regardless. They're early adopters.
How many people here have smoked for years then tried to give up? Hard isn't it. Is it harder than the thought of giving up your precious iPhone, even though the price of cigarettes has gone up and up and up over the years?
Verdict: Take a greedy (or is it just badly managed?) company, add addicts, and you get misery.
