Free iPhones ?

I heard that Apple employees will all get free iPhones at the end of July? Is this true? Have other manufacturers done the same or is this unprecedented? Did Motorola employees get free Razrs? If free iPhones are distributed, what about the fees for activation and the required 2-year contract? Are these included for free? What would be the cost for distributing free phones? It would be passed-on to the consumers?

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Jobs pulls an Oprah -- $12M in iPhones for all Apple employees - Engadget

No wonder the iPhones are over-priced; consumers will be paying so employees can get the freebies. I wonder if the activation fees and service contracts are included.

I've made several predictions about the iPhone.

There is a term in the software business called "early adopter." This term is usually applied to people who will rush out and buy any new software, proven or not. They're simply technology nuts who just have to have the latest and greatest stuff - price no object.

I predicted that Apple would experience a big sales bubble after the release of the iPhone. I actually expected the "cult of Apple" groupies to kill themselves to buy more phones than are being bought at this point in time. There was virtually no lines in any AT&T store after the first hour of the iPhone release. Anywhere in the USA after the first hour of the relerase, you could mosey on in and buy an iPhone without any waiting. The "early adopters" are not buying this phone in the numbers Jobs had hoped for.

I also predicted that as time went on, sales of the iPhone would start to significantly sag. The iPhone price is simply too high, AT&T's data and voice plans are too expensive for most; and the iPhone technology is simply yesterday's old technology wrapped up in some cute eye candy. This will not bode well for the iPhone as time goes by.

IF you want this thing (and that's a BIG IF), hold on, sit tight, relax, chill. The price on this thing is gonna drop and drop like a hot brick. AT&T's moronic management commited to sell 20 million of these things. Assuming they can make that number (doubtful) they's have to sell one to every 3-4 of their customers. No mobile carrier has ever sold that many of anything to anyone. The Motorola Razr is arguably the best selling phone in history. Motorola has sold 50 million Razrs. Every carrier across the globe sells the Razr and the price for the Razr is no barrier ... it's affordable for everyone. The iPhone is not affordable and it does not have any sort of a global distribution network. AT&T can't sell 20 million of them -- even if there was such a demand for them and there isn't.

The price for the iPhone will again drop like a hot brick. Just give it time.

I've played with the iPhone BTW and while the eye candy part of it is nice, the phone is really not that big of a deal.

Originally Posted by shulman

No wonder the iPhones are over-priced; consumers will be paying so employees can get the freebies. I wonder if the activation fees and service contracts are included.

some serious kudos to the apple advertising team, they took old technologies like touch screen, internet, and eamil and pitched them as being new, and unsavy people, who didnt know what blackberries or smartphones were for, took this as a revolution, which in one way it is. new designs for phones toward consumers. the east is not going to buy apples shenanigans, the only way it sells here is as a status symbol.

Apple's marketing team are truly geniuses. I bet if you go to work for Apple in their marketing department you could get practically any job you wanted if you left.

damn

Rich people can be so nice at times, while other are stingy

damn i should have started workin at apple