My outrage over the iPhone 3G S pricing
Like many iPhone owners I have been waiting not so patiently for the new iPhone to be released. Having owned the original iPhone, the original 16GB model, and the iPhone 3G versions. I clearly love my iPhone and watched the WWDC live feeds to hear what we would be getting next. The spec’s great, software great and pricing great, so I’m ready to head to the store and hand over my money. Until later in the day when reports started coming out stating that pricing was only for new customers not existing iPhone 3G owners. To say I was upset is an understatement.
Using the online tool Apple sent out links to reserve your new iPhone 3G S’s I found out a iPhone 3 G S 32GB version will cost me $699 a piece and I was looking to pick up 3 of them to replace our existing iPhone 3G’s 16GB version. This fact is what upset me so much. Why would AT&T Wireless choose this coarse of action and what could I do about this.
Thinking about this further I decided on a coarse of action, first I would write this post, next I would send a message to AT&T Wireless PR team and copy Apple, and several other people which we will get to later.
To be fair US wireless consumer’s have become addicted to the carrier subsidized prices on new cell phones. The wireless carriers are a business first and foremost with a responsibility to maximize the return to its shareholders. However, the second thing you learn in business is you take good care of your customer’s as it’s easier not to mention cheaper to sell more products to existing customer than attract new customers. Oh the first thing you learn of coarse is to sell your products/solutions at the highest possible price and still gain customers.
My problem is, there are several reports that Apple is in talks with Verizon to offer the iPhone to its customer base. Should Apple open up the iPhone distribution to Verizon or even worse total switch carriers then where does this leave AT&T Wireless. In my opinion when you consider these facts, AT&T Wireless is being very short sighted for trying to over charging loyal customers looking to purchase the new iPhone 3G S. During conference calls AT&T have reported greater than 50% of their wireless business revenue comes from iPhone customers. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to realize that if you mistreat these customers and they have a choice then they will take their business to another carrier. And you better believe should Apple take this step the phone they would release would be something that would make customers want to switch carriers for.
Which brings me to the second group of people I copied on my letter. I copied my federal House and Senate representatives. The reason for coping this is simple in my mind. This is another example of US wireless carrier price gouging it’s customers. The other example is the prices they charge customers for text messaging. These predator practices have gone on for far too long and something needs to be done about it. Maybe our elected officials will take some interest in making sure we as consumers, are not taken advantage of by these companies any longer. When you look at both of these high profile injustices maybe it is enough to get their faces on the news and thus get them interested in talking about this on the news and maybe just maybe get AT&T Wireless to reconsider their pricing models.
If you are truly upset about this and wish to upgrade I would suggest you follow the same coarse of action. Send an email to AT&T Wireless PR team, copy Apple’s iPhone PR team and lastly and most importantly send a copy of the message to your federal officials both in the House and Senate. Remember the key to these steps is in the number of people who write these letters.
