I usually don’t link to John’s PC Magazine columns, but he really hit the nail on the head with his latest one about Apple’s bricking of unlocked iPhones. John starts off by pointing out the balance most carriers have with locked phones and their customers:
The phones are locked, but they are sold at a deep discount if the user takes out a long-term contract that usually runs a couple of years. Here we have a practical sales trick that makes sense for everyone. The user gets a phone at a discount, or often free, and the service provider gets a customer it can depend upon for two years or so.
Then he points out how Apple has changed that balance completely in its favor:
Nobody has ever attempted the “trick” of selling the phone at full retail, keeping it locked, tying the customer into a long-term contract with a crummy service provider, and allowing no alternatives to this scheme. Hello, Apple. Users seem to have been so dazed by their shiny iPhones that they failed to notice that they were getting royally screwed by everyone involved.
That’s the thing I never got about the iPhone. You pay full price for it, but yet you really don’t own it. Welcome to the new world according to Apple.
Damn, people treat the iPhone like it was pussy. Can’t people just say no?
The big difference between the iPhone and *ANYTHING* else that Apple have sold in the past is the recurring revenue that they will get from this. According to some sources this could be as much as 40% of the ongoing costs. Assume an average of $40 per month for 2 years and that’s $384 per iPhone.
1 Million iPhones sold… that’s a lot of money. Unlock 5% of them and Apple loses close to $20,000,000. What company won’t want to stop that revenue leakage?
What does Apple think it is … Microsoft?
I keep seeing people say that carriers subsidized phones are unlocked. Many times they are not and you cannot transfer them between cellular providers. As far as crappy service goes I was fully prepared to dislike AT&T when I got my iPhone but I have had excellent coverage and service. if you don’t like the Apple AT&T arrangement the solution is simple. Don’t buy one.
As far as comparing Apple to Microsoft…Puh-lease.
The one thing that i do find really annoying is that the iPod touch is crippled so it doesn’t compete with the iPhone.
Apple is rising and rapidly becoming a newer Sony or Microsoft. Even more hardball than we’ve ever known a company to be.
I foresee a decade of prolific ranting…
These will be known as the “The Dvorak Years”…
🙂
#3 No Apple thinks it is Apple. Microsoft has always been more open than Apple. I don’t know why anyone is surprise by this. If Apple was so open there would be no Microsoft. But Jobs is a bigger control freak than Gates. Microsoft’s Mobile PC is a lot more open than the OS on the iPhone. I can get third party apps to run on Mobile PC. But I have the iPhone because of the Safari. If M$ fixxes Mobile PC and adds a full Web Browser on it than it would kill.
Apple will probably teach the Phone companies something about screwing their customers.
#6 You got an iPhone because of Safari? Thats like getting a Ferrari because of the comfortable seats…
Other countries GIVE AWAY the airwaves to companies that deliver the LOWEST RATES TO CONSUMERS.
I vote we Americans do this … instead of selling the airwaves to the HIGHEST BIDDER who charges the HIGHEST PRICE to the consumer.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA!
Only in America! 😆
Cheers
Anyone who suffers because they bought an Apple product gets what they deserve for promoting this kind of bullshit.
Why are people outraged that a company wants to protect it’s bottom line? Apple isn’t ‘screwing’ anyone…they are protecting their business interests.
The last firmware update clearly stated that using it with an unlocked phone would do damage…why are people upset here? It’s like getting mad at your parents for telling you not to touch the stove because it’s hot, then you doing it anyways.
12. Not a Mac fan obviously, but I have to agree with your assessment. WTF were people thinking when they bought the phone? We all knew about the 2 year contract, so do you people enter into other contracts you have no intention of keeping? I, for one dont get it. If the iPhone customers didnt want to abide by the contract, dont buy the friggin phone.
What Apple and the Steve Job’s bitches writing here (you know who you are) fail to understand is that there are people that are not fond of rules and have no respect for the status quo… Apple use to sell (or, at least, market to those people) now is just protecting it’s bottom line, the same justification used by Sony and Microsoft. Apple is sucking as much or more than those companies… In the long run, they will all fail.
This ‘event’ will be viewed in the future the same as the time when the ‘bean-counters’ took over at Apple and it sent Apple into a downslide with Steve eventually leaving. Something has happened at Apple again. It’s not like Apple is doing poorly and needs to whip it;s customers to cough up more cash. How much cash does Apple need to make? Where is a dividend? Who’s decision was this? I think it was a huge mistake. I was at Apple during the first ‘event’ and I have a sickening feeling that it has happened again. Something about those who don’t remember the past will re-live it again. Apple is not as invincible as someone thinks they are.
Just one problem: No one forced these morons to upgrade the firmware.
#4, 15 – I ordered you to stop posting, monkey. Shut up. You can’t make a point even if you try.
#12 – And you’re posting because…? You deserve to be mocked at every… wait, you already are. Idiot.
#17 – Any proof to back that up, besides the history repeats itself argument? Thought not.
Plenty of proof… but I’lll take it to my grave. This just feels the same. I wonder what WOZ thinks of all of this?
i knew the iphone would be a failure and so it begins….nothing proprietary can last for long anymore….there are so many linux distros that are far superior to windows and mac there’s no point in arguing with those desperately hanging on to their outdated business models….enjoy your iphones….i doubt if service will be available for two years….
I hope all iPhone users suffer excruciating gas cramps. The iPhone business model harms the already sucky American cell phone system, not helps. It would be much better to see things like the Helio Ocean or OpenMoko to take off.
James, it appears you’re having a bad day…
#23 – Yeah, so? I’m liking the idea of global warming.
Gawd, just thinking about the iPhone gave me gas cramps. I’m going outside now to unleash some greenhouse gasses.
James, I order you to inhale. ROFL…..
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iPhone for iDiots
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why even bother talking about it?
#26 – because of all the iDrones that bought them.
What’s the big gripe with AT&T? I switched to Cingular when the RAZR came out. At that time it was only offered with Cingular. I was using US Cellular at the time and starting to get fed up when they decided to remove the only tower within range of my house during their upgrade. Despite not having any reception at my house they wouldn’t let me cancel my contract without a cancelation fee. So I switched to Cingular and have had much better reception, better customer service, and a cheaper contract (at least at that time).
The point is, if you want the phone, you have to switch to a cell provider that’s offering it. If you want an unlocked phone with an open platform, buy an OpenMoko (whenever they are released from beta), don’t buy an iPhone. No one’s making you buy the phone, no one’s making you upgrade to the newest firmware. No one’s making you use AT&T. If you made that decision and bought an iPhone, then that’s your own damn fault.
I see that it wasnt mentioned that most cellphone providers dont actually make any money on a 2 year subscriber contract until after the first 12 months – I’m not defending them, its a hella-crazy ripoff, but thats how the system works
Take any piece of brand new, out of the box electronics, open it up, modify the circuits and/or ROM, and that pretty well blows the warranty. Anything past that is just “Blowin’ In The Wind”.
>>Take any piece of brand new, out of the box electronics, open it
>>up, modify the circuits and/or ROM, and that pretty well blows
>>the warranty.
Nobody’s complaining about the warranty. It’s the malicious, intentional destruction of private property by Apple that is the bone of contention.
I predict the IPhone sales nosedive into the crapper as a result of this, even though most people are not going to implement the hacks that result in brickification of the iPhone.
It’s the thought that counts, and Apple has just gotten an incredible amount of bad publicity by showing what creepy dicks they are.
…and I still want to see what happens when they roll this out in various European countries, and come head to head with the EU legislation that requires phone- and network providers to provide a means to unlock your phone on request…
#32 – Geez, I’m agreeing with Mustard again….
You idiot iPhone customers! You morons. You losers. You pathetic, arrogant twerps. Weather you bought one and either used it as-is, or hacked it, you’re a friggin’ dumb-ass from Dumb-Ass Land. You got what you deserved, SCREWED! How? Here:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone
Here’s a quote I coined years ago custom tailored just for you:
In the world of trends, fads and fashion there are two kinds of people; Those who own the leash, and those who wear it.
And you’re waring it, oh boy are you waring it.
Enjoy your $600 piece of crap.
Hasta…
Hey #36/pedro , it seems #31/Omar… should check out the link I put in #35, post-haste. If he acts soon enough, he can find a sucker to foist his boo-boo on and use the money for a real “all purpose” cell phone. In the bargain, he’d have enough left over to pay his electric bill, gas bill and probably a few months of decent non-AT&T service for the above mentioned cell phone. Oh well, what can you expect from a company called American Telephone and Telegraph. That’s right “Telegraph”.
I can hear some of the readers thoughts now, “Telegraph?!?! WTF?!?!”. Yup, that would explain their crappy service, yeah?