Apple → Re: Sept. 12 invites for iPhone 5? release...

The "blood sucking companies" (???) are giving you a great deal.
It's the manufacturer that sets the price...NOT the telcos.
If you have a complaint with any blood sucker out there...look no further than Culpertino...they're the ones who are charging $650+. As it is, local bell is making it cheaper for you to make the initial purchase.
Your complaints against the bells are unfounded....these are loss leaders for them. The more units they sell, the lower their earnings.

You obviously don't know much about Canadian telecom...

The terms are 3 years for an top notch phone like an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, as well as for crap low end phones if you want them for $0...

The US companies would love to move to three year cycles. We're it not for staggering, they'd do so in a heartbeat.
AT&T's contract (with Apple) is up first, if they go to a three year cycle, Verizon will steal their market share (advertising a two year deal), so AT&T wont...and then when Verizon's deal is up, they wont change because they're afraid of losing market share to AT&T...kind of a brilliant unintended (intended?) consequence of giving AT&T exclusivity.
In any event, as you (and others have) said, you can always pay the true price on the phone. In fact, if you do, you can probably upgrade every year or so and peddle on eBay the old phone for a net cost of ~$100/year to have the latest and greatest. YMMV.

You used to be able to upgrade after 1 year here, but now its 2 years for the smartphones, unless you pay "penalties"... and then you still sign a 3 year contract on the new phones...

ugh..

That's why they offer unlimited talk, text, and web for $40/month.

Oh wait, no they don't. "Great deal" my ass, they're just taking the cost of a new phone every X years and spreading the cost (and a bit more) over that period. It's not like you get a discount in your monthly bill for sticking with your phone for years on end.

In contrast if you bought the phone outright directly from Apple you still wouldn’t be getting any special deals or great rates on the service from the very same telco companies you would otherwise be under contract to.

Then don't agree to the contract.
You (and others) obviously feel the contract isn't of any value, so since no one is holding a gun to anyone's head, just buy the unsubsidized phone from Apple.
Some like the deal, others don't.
No sense complaining about a deal that one voluntarily entered into.
No one here was unaware of the lock up.

How does a penalty (ie. contract) have value? I can't recall one person being thankful of being leashed to (insert cell provider here) for X years.

Not complaining about the postpaid method of doing things. I just dislike the thought of their overpriced rates somehow being a "great deal". They just happen to be the only such "deal" in town.

I bought my 4S from Apple. I'm too sick of Rogers here, I'm not signing up for a 3 year contract again.
Technically I'm still "on contract" for my iPhone 4 for about another year even though I've bought a 4S, sold the original 4 and the 5 is about to come out. A 2 year contract is much more reasonable.

Of course Rogers loves it. They let you upgrade after 2 years, then like HiVolt said, you have to extend your contract to 3 years again.

Unfortunately there's no "bring your own phone" discount here, which there should be if you ask me.

I hope that the iPhone 5 will be AWS compatible... at least there will be other carrier options...

Consumer can pay ~$650 for an unsubsidized phone...or ~$200 for a subsidized phone with requirement that if consumer cancels plan within 20 (?) months they have to reimburse carrier for the subsidy.
Considering the monthly cost of cellular service would probably be the same irrespective of whether they were under a contract, or not, it seems to me that for the requirement to hold onto phone for period, consumer saves an out of pocket ~$450.

In any contract, both sides have to give up something (consideration). In this contract, carrier is providing you with a phone for $450 less than cost and you are agreeing to reimburse if you don't meet your obligation.
Seems pretty straight forward to me....that's the value, no?.

Saw this in a David Pogue blog

quote:

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...The $200 is just a down payment. You’ll pay off the rest through the remaining months of your contract with Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or whatever. By signing a two-year contract, you’re agreeing to reimburse the carrier over time.

Therefore, it’s not greed or price-gouging for AT&T to charge existing iPhone customers more than it charges new customers for the new iPhone.

Now, you might well argue: “Well, hey, how long does it take me to pay off my subsidized phone? Surely not the entire two years!”

You’re right. It’s somewhere between 12 and 24 months. Why does it vary? Because different people are on different plans. Some people pay $70 a month, some pay $150, whatever. The more you pay each month, the faster AT&T recoups the phone’s real cost.

Once AT&T has recouped the full price of the older iPhone, you are “upgrade eligible.” You can now buy a new phone at the new-customer price. At that point, the cycle begins anew. (And by the way, yes, you’ll face the same issue in June 2011 or whenever the next iPhone model appears.)...

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»pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/ ··· stomers/

Thought that was pretty common knowledge...and also why prepaids are the more cost-effective deal in the long run. A $200 phone and $40/month for 2 years is a cheaper deal than a $200 phone at $80-90/month for 2 years [$(80-40) x 24 months = $960 price difference]. Even if you amazingly get retail trade-in value for your iPhone, it's not near the difference that going postpaid cost you.