GoBigRed79

$10 says BGR ignores this report

I would think large buys like that would be an insider or Softbank themselves.  Can imagine an activist buying up shares with Softbank already holding most of the company.

Anything like this coming down the pike for Android phones? I am not complaining about the iPhone program here, just saying that it would be nice to expand it a little. 

I have not checked resale trends lately, but my guess is they can be more aggressive with the iPhone leasing programs because historically the iPhone maintains a high resale value vs. android phones. 

Also, like it or not, iPhone drives a lot of traffic.  Having the best iPhone deal out there is not a bad thing.  I like how they are getting ahead of the next iPhone announcement with this program. 

This just dropped....

 

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Sprint Launches iPhone Forever

 

Join the iPhone Forever Revolution. Upgrade your iPhone ANYTIME, it’s included in your monthly rate. Get your iPhone for just $22/mo. Anytime you don't have the latest, you are eligible to upgrade! For a limited time, get this special offer for $15/mo!

 

Limited Time Offer: Bring us any smartphone to trade-in and your regular monthly rate is reduced to just $15 until your next upgrade. But HURRY, if you get your iPhone 6 and upgrade before December 31 that upgrade doesn't stop your discount – it continues all the way until your next upgrade!

 

How it Works:

• Get your iPhone 6 before 9/10.
• Send us your working smartphone within 30 days. (we'll provide the postage).
• Trade in your iPhone 6 for the latest iPhone no later than 12/31.

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The Newsroom Release has a great price chart which compares it with offers from the other carriers.

 

The $15/month pricing is for an iPhone 6 (16 GB) on a 22 month lease with a trade-in of a smartphone. (Sprint also offers a 21 month lease on this program at different pricing)

 

The 24 month lease is not part of this program.

So if I am reading this correctly if you are currently on an iPhone 6 lease there is no early upgrade.

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I've been a part of 2 class action lawsuits where this happened. Company was sold in full to SanDisk for one, majority shareholder took it private in the other. We got nothing in the latter instance after going to court, the court agreed that the current market price when the sale happened (which had been tanking) was the "fair value" at the time, and the majority stake holder was paying a 5% premium (This would be what a $0.20 premium in the case of Sprint!?). Case Dismissed.

 

For the former instance, SanDisk was ordered to increase their 10% premium by 10% (to 11%) and issue checks to all class participants, I think I got like $81 in the mail well over a year after the deal closed. WOOHOO

 

Lost significant money in both cases. SoftBank could easily do the same, be sued, and send you a check for $0.57 (or whatever insignificant sum the Judge decides) and all would be good in the eyes of the law, or the case should just as easily get dismissed all together.

This.  Unless it could be proven that Softbank, in their role of majority owner, was intentionally trying to depress the stock value with the goal of going private, there would not be much of a case.  The common shareholders rarely win in these cases.

Definitely, but I'm not sure if a phone's battery would last more than two years, and it seems that more and more phone manufacturers are starting to build their phones with non-replaceable batteries.

 

People might skip the iPhone 6s, Galaxy S7, and HTC M10, but their iPhone 6, Galaxy S6, and HTC M9, respectively, might not last them another cycle because their batteries would start to give out.  They would have to buy the iPhone 7, Galaxy S8, and HTC M11.

 

Every two years, then, they would have to lease or buy their phones full retail price.  I'm not sure what incentive Apple, Samsung, and HTC would have to lower their prices if people continue to buy their phones every two years.  Not sure also if consumers would consider a cheaper Nexus, Motorola, OnePlus, or Asus phone especially since Sprint might not even white-list those phones.

Apple will replace the battery for $79 ( no extra cost under warranty if you have Applecare).  Not cheep but if it gets another year or two out of an otherwise working phone it is not a bad option.  Today's phones can last much longer then two years.  I am still on an iPad 2 I bought 4 years ago and it works just fine for what I do. 

Maybe there will some correlation between iPhone 6s sales and the non-subsidy cell phone model.  Hopefully even Apple will be forced to compete on price.

 

Sprint would be the only carrier selling the subsidized iPhone 6s, correct?

And this is one of the reasons Apple stock is under pressure lately.  Analysts believe Apple will have to compete on price as subsidy pricing goes away and lower priced handsets get better.  A good chunk of Apple profit is from the fat iPhone margins they have enjoyed the past few years.  Estimates put margins on the iPhone 6 in the 50% - 60% range.  http://fortune.com/2014/09/23/morgan-stanley-chinas-favorite-iphone-is-apples-most-profitable/

That's not how it works. If you pay the "buy out" price, you get to keep the phone.

There are two options to get out of a lease. 

You can buy out the lease, which is just the remaining lease payments, and return the phone.  Or you can buy out the lease (the remaining payments) plus pay the purchase option fee which is the fee you would pay at the end of the lease term to keep the phone.  If you pay both of those, the phone is yours. 

For example, say you have 12 mo left on a $20 a mo lease.  To just end the lease early and turn the phone in, you would pay $240.  To End the lease early and keep the phone, you would pay $240 plus the $200 purchase option fee = $440.

Was it considered roaming if you travelled to another state?

As long as you were on Sprint there was no roaming.  That was something actually pretty unique to Sprint at the time.

Ha!  My first Sprint plan in 1998 I think was 120 anytime minutes, no N&W or anything like that, obviously no data and it was $40 a month.  And that was considered good pricing. 

I always hope moves like this will put downward pressure on handset prices. I saw a comment on another site about how Apple at it's keynotes like to put up the subsidized prices. So they will show prices from Free to $299 for base configurations. If nobody is offering contracts anymore will they have to show the real prices and how will people react to that? Plus if the bill is simplified to the point where it just shows service and phone installment will that make people think twice about the phone they choose. I guess we'll find out. Of course with these plans the out the door cost is much lower so maybe it won't stop people.

This is one reason Apple's stock is under pressure right now. Growth is slowing as the market saturates and with subsidy pricing going away it's more likely they will have to compete on price, and the fat margins on iPhone will decrease.

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So far the new beta has been quite stable for me.  No crashes.  Still a stutter every now or then, but that is reduced.  Ringtone issue is fixed.  Wi-Fi assist is cool. 

Public Beta 3 is out. Same build as dev beta 5. So far my 6 seems snappier then PB 2. I will give a more detailed update after having some time to play around. Sprint carrier is 20.6.17

I agree with Robert, $30/GB is a fair deal, especially if the country you're visiting has native LTE coverage. Besides, when you're on vacation you're namely focusing on vacationing, not so much playing on your phone. 1GB full speed for one week abroad sounds like a sweet deal for the occasional glancing at my phone!

And considering some resorts/hotels charge upwards of $15-$20 a day for Wi-Fi access, this is really not a bad deal at all.  And like you when on vacation I am not on my phone much anyway.  Just nice to have to be able to text, check email, and use google maps when needed.

Slightly off topic but has anyone else been going longer between phone upgrades or is it just me and my friends/are we just getting old?

 

I used to get a new smartphone every year or so but now I am still on my Nexus 5 and my wife is on her iphone 5 and we are pretty happy. I guess for me there are diminishing returns for the expense of a new phone. My only real want is a better camera but my N5 has what I consider decent battery life.

 

The N6 didn't hold my interest long due to price and size but maybe the next N5 will be something that I get. Maybe my buying habits have just permanently changed now that I am not getting subsidized phones and instead buying them outright so I've become more price conscious.

I think the model of moving to financing plans instead of subsidy and offering a lower bill once the phone is paid off is going to keep a lot of people on phones longer.  Before, you were kinda foolish to not upgrade as soon as you could because you were paying the subsidy as part of your plan no matter what.  Now if you keep your phone once it is paid, you get to pay the lower rate.  So now there is more incentive for many to keep phones longer. 

The next line in the sand for Legere and the Pink contingent.  I wonder how they can subsidize this and not break the bank.  You know that Apple will want their cut regardless.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/t-mobile-iphone-6s-apple-music-offer-just-153023076.html

I am currently on a lease for my iPhone 6 and I would not be surprised to see Sprint come out and allow those on a current iPhone 6 lease to move up to a 6S lease when that phone comes out.  iPhone has a good enough residual value to allow it and with SoftBank's connection to Brightstar I would think Sprint would be in the best position to pull something like this off.  Not saying it will actually happen, but it would not shock me either. 

Wonder it there will be a point the stock gets cheep enough that SoftBank just buys the rest of it up.

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I don't recall it being a 4g fee at all. I remember it being a smartphone fee

It was called a "Premium" data fee and was introduced with the EVO 4G launch, hence why a lot of people think of it as a 4G fee.  But it was for all smartphone upgrades after the EVO launch.

More Cost Cutting.  NBA deal dropped. 

http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article27309760.html

I always thought it was funny that people called it a debacle because I never experienced WiMax troubles in my area. At the time, in much of my home area I could get 16 Mbps peak on WiMax and average speeds of around 8 Mbps. The only problem was battery life was horrible and when I went into my house I could only get WiMax if I stood in the back by the window. If I wasn't on WiMax, EVDO speeds were around 10kbps.

The problem was WiMax just never became that widespread.  A lot of markets never got it or just got protection site coverage.  And when you consider Sprint started charging the $10 "Premium" data fee while at the same time many customers were experiencing a deteriorating network, I can understand why a lot of people felt burned. 

How is the public beta for a daily driver?  I am really tempted to try it out.  What bugs are driving you guys nuts?  From what I am reading it seems pretty stable.

The network started to be crap way before the iPhone deal. Android users used and continue to use more data than iPhone users.

EVO 4G release in 2010 is when I recall it really starting to get bad.

I try to. No real reason not to. Flagship phones today will still be more than capable 2+ years from now. That's why I dislike trend of sealing up the batteries. It's really the only part that will wear out and need replacing. But then again, I'm also the type who buys a new car and keeps it until it falls apart. 

I have a buddy who always buys AppleCare with his iPhone and right before the two years is up goes in and gets a battery replacement service done so he can get another couple of years out of his phone with a fresh battery.  Me, my gadgets are my only real "vice".  2 years with the same one and I get antsy.  

Leasing in general just looks like a bad deal to me, regardless of who's offering it or who happens to be cheaper. The math on the plans doesn't seem very good, especially if there's any chance a person will damage their phone.

 

Other people seem to like it, and that's great for them. I don't see much harm in offering it. But I don't think I'd ever recommend leasing to someone -- it looks like you need a very specific use case to get a good deal out of it.

Honestly I don't think it is much different then doing an installment plan.  Either leasing or installments if you damage the phone you will have to pay off the loan/lease.  So in either case you should have insurance if you think you need it.  And the lease really is not much more expensive then full retail or installments.  IF i wanted to buy my 64gb iPhone at the end of the lease it would be $200.  The total price would be $800, about $50 more then retail.  But I wont keep a phone after 2 years so that is unlikely I will pay that.  So right now with my 10 line Framily I am paying $41 for an unlimited plan (Employee disc on the data) + $25 for my lease= $66 + tax a month for my plan and phone.  And I did not have to put anything down for the phone. 

The only real time installments make more sense is if you know you are keeping your phone longer then two years.  And I choose not to pay full retail upfront as long as interest free or good leasing deals are offered.  I guess I see the lease/installments as the evolution of the old two year contracts.

Just wondering if folks are still having issues with the Wi-Fi calling on the iPhone?  When it first came out, I and several others were having issues with not being able to place outbound calls and inbound callers getting a number disconnected message.  Removing the feature from the acct was the only way to resolve.  Is this still happening to people?  I am not sure I want to activate again and have issues.