AT&T is Doing Apple a Heck of a Solid

Applie 2015 invite, sourced from iMore.com.
Apple 2015 invite, sourced from iMore.com.

The 2015 iPhone event (I mean, what else can it be? It’s September, after all) is less than a week away, and the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will be unveiled. (Presumably. Maybe there will be a change in the naming convention, but that’s doubtful.)  Most rumors have the phones being the same essential form factors as the current 6 and 6 Plus, though perhaps a tad thicker to accommodate the rumored enhancement to a Force Touch screen and a 12 megapixel rear-facing camera.  (The front-facing camera is also expected to receive a bump up in specs.)  There is also a presumed upgrade in the processor, and all around, it’ll surely be a swift machine.  As usual, macrumors.com has a roundup of the rumors surrounding the upcoming event.  (I’ll link to 9to5mac.com, too, since Mark Gurman digs most of this stuff up, but be warned: the site recently underwent a design change, and I find it…unwieldy.)

Abysmal Base Storage

And, as has long been suspected when Phil Schiller was interviewed at WWDC, the base model of both phones are expected to come with just 16GB of storage, his theory being that “price-conscious buyers” can simply stream content if the base amount is too small.  This is, however, a ludicrously low amount of storage considering the increase in camera size and the ability to shoot 4K video (those files are huge).  There is a bizarre contingent of Apple apologists who get incensed when anyone suggests that the base models should come with 32GB of storage rather than 16GB, stating that 16GB is more than enough, and pointing to the availability of the 64GB model if you need more (for just $100 more).  Fair enough–Apple is a corporation with a duty to its stockholders to increase profitability.  And if Apple can charge a premium on dirt-cheap memory, more power to them. But that doesn’t change the fact that Apple is skewering consumers (and apparently making them feel happy about it) while it does so.

How AT&T is Doing Apple a Solid

Of the four major wireless providers in the United States, AT&T is the last one to still offer contract pricing.  To be sure, it’s web page strongly suggests you take advantage of its Next plan, even going so far as to launch a pop-up that shows how buying an iPhone on contract is a really bad long-term idea if you try to do so.  If AT&T doesn’t really want you hopping on a contract, why, then, does it keep them around?

I suspect it’s to give Apple the ability to do this:

iPhone 6 price comparison, sourced from The Verge's liveblog coverage of the 2014 event.
iPhone 6 price comparison, sourced from The Verge‘s liveblog coverage of the 2014 event.

Those prices are only available at contract prices, and even on Apple’s website, the iPhone 6 is marketed by saying “Starting at $199,” even though AT&T is the only major which offers a contract.  It isn’t until you click through and see the unlocked option that you discover that the phone is $649.00.  The 64GB version is $749.00.  To get a 6 Plus, you tack on an extra $100 to the price. There would arguably be much less enthusiasm for the new iPhones if Apple were forced to display the model lineup with the actual prices.  You can imagine what sort of pundit reaction there would be to a $449 iPhone 5c.

The iPhone is Expensive. Period.

All this is to say, with contracts disappearing, getting the new iPhone is not an inexpensive proposition.  Sure, carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint are offering ways to lease the iPhone so that you can always get the latest version. Which is a pretty good idea in many regards, except for my experience in Houston with those companies’ coverages: neither are reliable.  Otherwise, though, consumers are either going to need to purchase the phones outright (at prices which exceed a Mac Mini, and which potentially can exceed a MacBook Air–yes, yes, miniaturization doesn’t come cheap) or finance them with about a minimum of $20 extra tacked on your cell phone bill each month.  Your cell plan may not involve a contract anymore, but your phone purchase sure does.

All this is to say, and while Apple is not the only manufacturer making really expensive phones (Samsung, too, makes really expensive devices, and the impending Nokia flagships are likely going to be available at roughly the same prices, though they probably shouldn’t be), make sure you tack an extra $450 to the price you see when Apple displays its price lineup.