« TechMeme on Techmeme | Main | Long Live the RSS Reader! »
How Low Can the iPhone Go?
By Mark Evans | December 4, 2008
Rumors have it - actually the Boy Genius Report - suggests you may soon be able to buy an 4GB iPhone for $99 (and a two-year contract)
At $99, how can you go wrong given the iPhone is the world’s hottest device - the biggest thing since sliced bread, the Pocket Fisherman and mood rings.
Truth be told, $99 is irrelevant. It’s not really the cost of the iPhone that matters but how much it’s going to cost you over the life of the contract with your carrier.
The iPhone is cool, the App Store is awesome and Steve Jobs is a marketing genius. It’s also a dream device for cash-hungry carriers, who see it as high-demand tool that eats us megabytes of data. As we all know, data is a high margin service so the more data people consume, the happier carriers are.
At $99, the iPhone is akin to a loss-leader. You get seduced by the fact you can get one for less than C-Note. If you’ve ever wanted an iPhone, it’s mighty tempting but I’ll leave you with two words: caveat emptor.
Technorati Tags: Apple, wal-mart
Topics: Apple/iPod |