iPhone 3G S and at&t – Monopoly Rent-Rant – small print
Written by Paul Newnes
So like a lot of geeks today I read the tweets and live blogs about the rumor that a new iPhone would appear. No disappointment – Apple smacked the ball out of the park. They reacted perfectly to the market conditions: keep innovating through the recession, drop prices where you can and provide lower cost entry points into the product families.
I owned the first gen iPhone, bought the 3G last year and was about to buy the new iPhone 3G S. $299 for the new one? No problem. One small problem though, the at&t small print:
For non-qualified customers, including existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $499 (8GB), $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB).
So my reward for having been an at&t customer for 6 years and bought both iPhones? A $400 premium.
F**k you at&t. This is why as soon as Verizon get’s iPhone, you are toast.
For more understanding of why this happens read this Wikipedia article on Monopoly Rent. Essentially certain economic conditions allow companies to take the piss out of consumers. The problem is that whilst they have tremendous leverage over the consumer with the demand this device will draw, we still have a choice.
