3 ms·

You're making the assumption that we need to buy new phones every two years. Now that the smartphone spec race is starting to slow down, we're going to see less

You're making the assumption that we need to buy new phones every two years. Now that the smartphone spec race is starting to slow down, we're going to see less of a need for frequent smartphone purchases. You could easily use the same phone for 3 or 4 years, as long as it doesn't break. But when you're on the subsidy model, you have to pay extra for the subsidy even if you don't get a new phone.

cube13 14y ago
He wouldn't break even after 4 years, though. Nowhere near close to it, actually. Keep in mind that it's for 2 lines. So, with the T-mobile prices, that's $1300 up-front for two iPhone 5's(the iPhone's $650 MSRP is about average for carrier-subsidized phones), versus $400 for the two phones through ATT. So that means, over 48 months, for the T-mobile plan to be better, he needs to save $900 over that period. That comes out to $18.75 per month. The $5 he saves per month, after 48 months, would be $240. That's half of the subsidized cost difference for one phone, but his plan has 2 phones. In that case, the ATT plan would have saved him $600 ($6400 for ATT for 2 $200 iPhones and $125/month for 48 months vs $7060 for 2 $650 phones and $120/month for 48 months). In fact, at that per month price difference, it would take 15 years to make up the difference between the ATT subsidized and non-subsidized T-mobile.