It’s not a secret that Apple has developed a new selling strategy for it’s sensational genius - iPhone. In a few words the new strategy means that not a single shop can sell iPhones with “no strings attached”, there’s always a mobile operator behind.
The trick is that mobile operator negotiates with Apple (or through third party operators) and Apple gets revenue from each sold iPhone. It leaded to absence of fixed price for the gadget and a lot of tricky contracts with operators appeared. In this post I’ll try to cover all the most unfriendly contracts and ways how to get your iPhone.
Estonia got iPhones 3G on August 22, 2008 through TeliaSonera and local operator - EMT. The price of the gadget is $250. For the money you get iPhone and 2 year contract which monthly price is $55. Simple calculations show us that the actual price is $55 per month * 24 months+ $250 for the phone = $1,570.
Who are the contracts targeted to? If you can count a bit and not sticked with the the number on a label and are able to see the asterix behind it - you easily notice the gadget doesn’t cost the money that is asked for it.
In comparsion in the UK you can get an iPhone in O2 for $70 per month of 1,5 year contract ($1260 + $230 for the gadget = $1,490).
For example in Russia “the black market” offers unlocked iPhone for about $2,500 with no warranty and no boundaries to a single operator, what makes the contract more preferrable. Officially iPhone is not available in the country.
So the marketing goes well - kiddies beg their parents to buy the gadget, the price itself is not that high and contracts are signed.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Quite expensive…I remember when Steve Jobs told the price will be 300$ for iPhone.Well…
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