The $890 iPhone rebate

Caesar has it spot on. A huge portion of all economies are made up of Luxury goods that you pay a premium to own, whether it is for the “quality” (real or imagined) or just plain “snob appeal”. Pay the money or don’t. Quit moaning about it. No one “owes” you anything, least of all a luxury product at bargain pricing. Can’t afford it? Get a raise or another job. Oops, Perhaps you are not a sufficiently good employee or businessman to earn the kind of money it takes to own an iPhone. So sad, too bad. iPhones aren’t for the poor. Sasly that includes me at this point in time. Boo Hoo, won’t someone just give me one so I can feel better about myself?

@ Randy:
“sell an unlocked model at a high enough premium that each company (Apple and T-Mobile) will still get a healthy profit”

@Wonko:
“They just wanted to price it high enough to make money off it in the absence of a contract.”

They already make money off of it and a very healthy profit at the regular 399 price:
http://www.isuppli.com/news/default.asp?id=7308

What upsets me about this is that Apple loudly proclaimed that the 399€/$ are the UNSUBSIDIZED, full price for the iPhone. That you cannot get it subsidized. If that was really true, it would cost 399 with or without contract. They may not (want to) sell you one without contract where they can, and that’s fine. But if they do, then, well, 399 is the full, unsubsidized price. Period. How can Apple then turn around and ask for 999?

Isn’t that just like admitting that the contract 399 version comes with a 600€ subsidy?

Apple’s iPhone is too secluded from the mainstream media world. The Gphone makes all media more ubiquitous, and how that ubiquity will impact company profits. That can benefit both consumers and investors. The NewsVisual article on Google’s Open Handset Alliance http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/11/google-and-moto.html implies that it’s really personal connections among business leaders that determine future success in the competitive marketplace. But consumers can also benefit from the new products those alliances spawn.

The Reuters link says nothing about a requirement to sign with Debitel, only the monthly price.

A german can buy an unlocked version from T-Mobil, get his rebate from Debitel, then go back to T-Mobil, buy their service and get visual email.

ex ped: I doubt Debitel would allow people to take the rebate and run. Reuters’ report doesn’t say anything about a requirement to sign with Debitel, but others do. See AppleInsider here. –Philip Elmer-DeWitt

WEIRD !

Sony sells premium priced TVs, cameras, all kinds of stuff. Ditto BMW, ditto Tiffany, and Wolfgang Puch. Nobody gets their knickers in a bunch regarding THEIR right to price things any way they wish. What’s with this Apple obsession ! Don’t want to pay their price, don’t like their pricing model? WALK.

This article is silly on many levels. If they wanted to “choke off” unlocked sales, they would have priced it at a couple of thousand Euros, not 999. They just wanted to price it high enough to make money off it in the absence of a contract. How hard is that to figure out? And all the better if you can get your competitor to subsidize your product for you. Sounds good to me.

And honestly, it sounds like a non-issue so far. How many subsidies has Debitel given out so far? None.

I’m subsidizing unicorn purchases, can I get coverage too?

Ditto Thompson.

Now, if England, France, and all other countries follow their lead, then Apple will surely reach it’s stated goal of 10 million iPhones in 2008!

Wow, this writeup is disturbingly similar to one at Ars Technica in its writing and organization. You sure you guys didn’t do a little cribbage? This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this.

ex ped: I see what you mean. But I hadn’t seen Jacqui’s item, and giving when she posted hers she couldn’t have seen mine. Must be another case of great minds thinking alike. –Philip Elmer-DeWitt

Thats great for AAPL. They get more money for the iPhone and sell more of them, plus consumers get more choices. Sounds like the European cell phone companies that signed agreements with Apple are the only ones losing out.

Actually, they DID figure on it. To appease the German court, they offered to sell an unlocked model at a high enough premium that each company (Apple and T-Mobile) will still get a healthy profit in lieu of service fees. It was already understood that an unlocked phone would be going to another network.

All that this new event has caused is a likely increase in the number of iPhones sold in Germany, which will make Apple and (to a lesser extent) T-Mobile happy to receive the shared $890 bounty. They don’t care whether the bounty ultimately comes from the customer or Debitel.

Good times for Apple…

Thompson