Comments on: Apple no longer receiving monthly revenue from At&t

By: Brian Cowan

Brian Cowan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:37:33 +0000

The $30/month data plan is pretty much the same as all the other PDA’s, so I’m not too upset about that. I would be paying the same price for the data if I bought a Palm Centro from AT&T. But for $100 more, to get an iPhone… All I have to do now is wait for someone to come up with a way to sync it with my corporate email…

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:17:16 +0000

If Apple went to a OS X strategy for the iPhone OS X I could see paying for Major Updates – 3.0, 4.0, etc. While receiving minor updates for free – 3.1, 3.2, 3.2.1, etc. That would more make up for the loss of AT&T subscription sharing. 10 million iPhones x $10 for a major update would equal a lot more money than what AT&T was sharing.

By: pwb

pwb — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:07:52 +0000

Let’s not jump to any inaccurate conclusions here. Even with the new one-time compensation scheme, Apple can still recognize revenue over time. And most accountants find Apple’s conservative treatment of charging for updates to be bogus.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:30:30 +0000

@Chris,

The plans won’t go down, the PRICE did. Apple doesn’t get the monthly revenue and AT&T is subsidizing the new low cost.

@John and @ The Author,

Apple recognizes iPhone revenue on a subscription basis over 24 months. This has nothing to do with the revenue they received from AT&T in terms of how they provide free updates. Those will continue because Apple will still continue to recognize the (lower) price over 24 months.

iPod revenue is NOT recognized over 24 months (like most sold goods, iPod revenue is recognized at the POS), which is why iPod touch updates have a nominal fee.

@James,

Actually, since the new iPhone now uses 3G, and has third-party apps with which people will presumably be hammering the 3G network, the data plan rates are going UP $10 a month. This is the same rate AT&T charges BlackBerry users, so I guess it’s welcoming iPhone to the big leagues.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:55:31 +0000

Looks like the data plan for the 3G will bump up to $30