O2 offers iPhone customers more bang for buck - more wireless minutes and text messages for the same tariff
By Will Park on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 1:17 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, Financial, O2, Services, iPhone
In an apparent effort to spur sales of the iPhone in the UK, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iPhone partner, O2 (NYSE: TEF), has announced that they’ll be radically changing their iPhone wireless plans. Most O2 iPhone customers will see a three-fold increase in wireless minutes on the same monthly tariff.
O2 iPhone customers on the £35 wireless plan can look forward to 600 wireless minutes (up from 200) and “more than double” the number of bundled SMS text messages. Those with £45 plans can expect to get a bump up to 1,200 minutes and 500 SMS text messages - the same as the current £55 plan. O2 will be dissolving its £55 plan and replacing it with a £75 “super-tier” wireless plan. “Super-tier” customers will be offered 3,000 minutes and 500 included SMS text messages.
The iPhone’s on-contract (18 months) will remain unchanged at £269. Current customers on the £55 plan can choose to save the £10 or upgrade to the “super-tier.” The new plans should go into effect on February 1.
Now, that’s what O2 iPhone customers should have been offered from the beginning. These revised rate-plans may just help boost iPhone sales in the UK - adding to the 190,000 iPhones sold in the first 8 weeks of sales.
[Via: Apple Insider]
That’s a lot better but it’s still too demanding. If they subsidized the phone and reduced the contract to 12 months I might actually get one.
Yep, it’s better but not enough. They’d have done FAR better to have reduced the initial price to £99 and kept the inclusions the same, making money back throughout the contract on overages.
See also my editorial here:
http://www.allaboutiphone.net/2008/01/iphone-pricing-musings/