iPhone giving 18 months free service.....

[Cybergypsy]

Cramer: Cingular to give away 18 months of service with iPhone

By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 12:00 PM EST

Thursday's hot iPhone rumor comes compliments of CNBC analyst Jim Cramer, who suggests Cingular/ATT will sidestep subsidization of the Apple handset by giving away lengthy service contracts.

"In its call, the company made it very clear that it's going to use Apple's iPhone to get customers from Verizon Wireless by giving away its service for a year and a half to those customers who buy the phone," Cramer explained in his blog posting at TheStreet.com.

The CNBC "Mad Money" host believes the strategy will help the wireless carrier court a flurry of new subscribers while maintaining requests from Apple not to discount the cost of the $499 and $599 mobile devices.

[Cybergypsy]

Getting one.....

[Garrison]

I am all about that!!!

[Kakashi]

sold.

[tennisfan16]

and if you are already a costumer will they just give you an extra year and a half free?

[TommyD]

Originally Posted by tennisfan16

and if you are already a costumer will they just give you an extra year and a half free?

Doubt it. Just like the discounted or free phones, only valid for new subscribers.

[Civic4u]

crap, only new customer.
My cellphone provider change name so many time. Here the list from beginning to present.

Houston Cingular
PrimeCo
?
ATT
Wireless One
ATT
Cingular
ATT......I miss someone, can't remember it.

[dmx]

Cell Phone service? DATA Plan Service that the iphone would probably require.. orrrrr both?.. Theres gotta be a catch

[Gonzo]

Here is my question.

The iPhone costs $599 (for the 8 gig) WITH a 2 year contract.

So does that mean if you buy an iPhone for $599, you get 1.5 years free BUT the 2 year contract starts after that. So effectively you have a 3.5 year contract that costs less?

I don't know if that is actually how it is set up, just speculating.

If I did buy an iPhone I'd easily keep it for that long since I can't take it to another carrier anyway. At least not for 2 years, which I think is when Cingular's contract is up. Even so the iPhone may not be compatible with other carrier's networks.

Makes me wonder if this is Cingular's way of getting a hold of iPhone customers well into the time where it may become available for other carriers?

If iPhone was made compatible for say, Verizon, but I was still stuck with Cingular for another year and a half, I'd be pissed.



Even so if there are no other tricks or strings attached, 1.5 years of free service is great. Though DMX does bring up a good point. I'd think the data plan would have to be included since that is integral to the way iPhone works.

[Sli(ks]

Why somebody would pay $600 for a cellphone is beyond me. What does it do that's worth the ridiculous price? I mean that's about as expensive as a Playstation 3, lol.

[TommyD]

Originally Posted by Sli(k

Why somebody would pay $600 for a cellphone is beyond me. What does it do that's worth the ridiculous price? I mean that's about as expensive as a Playstation 3, lol.

+1

Apple is damn good at marketing and will try and convince you why you need it and how it will make your life easier, lol! I need to a wireless phone to make calls. I want call quality, battery life, ease of use, and the most important feature to me, size. The smaller the better. I don't care if by using UMTS, you can d/l 1 Meg per sec or faster, I still have to watch it on a little bitty screen, which to me sucks. The people that will buy this are market mavens, and they probably like gadgets in general. BTW, I've worked in Telecommunications (Wireless side) for 7 years now. To this date, the best phone I've ever used was the Nokia 8260. It didn't have a color screen or really any other of the whizbang bs that the new phones have, but I'd still be using that sucker today if I could. TDMA, which is what the phone was designed to work on, went away in favor of GSM.

[Cybergypsy]

Originally Posted by TommyD

+1

Apple is damn good at marketing and will try and convince you why you need it and how it will make your life easier, lol! I need to a wireless phone to make calls. I want call quality, battery life, ease of use, and the most important feature to me, size. The smaller the better. I don't care if by using UMTS, you can d/l 1 Meg per sec or faster, I still have to watch it on a little bitty screen, which to me sucks. The people that will buy this are market mavens, and they probably like gadgets in general. BTW, I've worked in Telecommunications (Wireless side) for 7 years now. To this date, the best phone I've ever used was the Nokia 8260. It didn't have a color screen or really any other of the whizbang bs that the new phones have, but I'd still be using that sucker today if I could. TDMA, which is what the phone was designed to work on, went away in favor of GSM.

I love Macs....and want one.....but for that price i might keep my other phone....and it smaller....

[arisenfury]

If Apple does not want the carriers to lower the cost of the phone, then, much like many other Smart Phones out there, $500 and $600 are probably the suggested retail. From there, carriers discount the phones when you sign up for the contracts. Apple won't let them discount the phone so, even with such a great product, many will be turned away from paying so much, and still be roped into a contact. I buy many phones throughout my 2 year contract but I pay the full retail. I'd never pay full retail for a phone and sign an extended or new contract. So in this way, they cannot discount the phone, but they can "discount" the contract by giving you 18 months free. As opposed to discounting the phone and making you pay for 2 years of service; now you pay for the phone and they discount the service.

[Avenger]

Originally Posted by Sli(k

Why somebody would pay $600 for a cellphone is beyond me. What does it do that's worth the ridiculous price? I mean that's about as expensive as a Playstation 3, lol.

Agree.........I want Cybergypsy's.........$250 on ebay. Almost bought a used one.

[Toxis]

Originally Posted by Sli(k

What does it do that's worth the ridiculous price?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xXNoB3t8vM

Nuff said!!!

[sickyute]

i'm going to switch from verizon to cingular just for the iphone ....

although verizon manager told me that the phone will be at verizon 6 months after it hits cingular ... however i don't want to wait ...

apart from that ... i'm getting tired of travelling and not being able to use my verizon phone ...

cingular here i come

wifi
mp3
etc etc etc .... yayyy ....

no more cell phone + ipod + laptop + this + that .... 1 iphone

[sickyute]

new gadget ftw

[EricRKinney]

wait for 2nd gen!!!
always better and cheaper!
just like iPod, iMac......

[TommyD]

Originally Posted by Cybergypsy

I love Macs....and want one.....but for that price i might keep my other phone....and it smaller....

I like that phone. N908 right? The thing I like about that phone is that it has the qwerty keyboard, although you need to use the stylus if you are going to text. Either way I like it!

Here is the one I'm currently using..



I'm pretty happy with it. It's small, and has tons of features (that I don't need or use) but the main thing is the radiation rating is low (.5). The other is the talk/standby time is pretty good for the size of the phone. This is something you have to look out for because a lot of the small phones on the market have low talk/standby times. Call quality is excellent and I think Samsung's OS is the best out there. Nokia used to have the #1 spot, IMHO, but after using this newer Samsung, I'm tipping them. The best part about the D807 is you can get one free if you are slick I don't like flip phones so these new sliders are very cool. You don't have to slide it open to answer a call. Samsung has some even smaller models that are headed this way soon. Damn do I miss working for one of the carriers. I used to get almost any phone I wanted for free so I would get to try out tons of them and could always tell who had their $hit together. Time to get a new engineering job. Radiation is always a factor on these damn things. Here is the top 10 radiation cell phones and why you need to be concerned with the rating that nobody looks at. As an engineer I'm on the damn thing constantly and always look up these ratings. 1.6 is the highest allowed right now.

Manufacturer and model SAR level
(digital)
1a. Motorola V195 1.6
1b. Motorola Slvr L6 1.58
2a. Motorola V120c 1.55
2b. Motorola V265 1.55
4a. Motorola Slvr L2 1.54
4b. Motorola V70 1.54
6a. Motorola P8767 1.53
6b. Motorola ST7868 1.53
6c. Motorola ST7868W 1.53
9b. Palm Treo 650 GSM 1.51

[Cybergypsy]

Yea mine so far is the best that i had... The i phone is so much larger...this fits in the coin pocket of my jeans.....that is a awesome phone...also mine is super thin...at one time it was the world thinnest...