Just yesterday we head that T-Mobile is finally going to start offering Apple products — but will that be enough to stand out from the competition? It turns out the carrier has one more trick up its sleeves: it won’t subsidize your phone anymore. Hopefully, that should mean more money for the device, but less out of your pocket each month in fees.
As reported by GigaOm, T-Mobile will indeed be carrying the iPhone, and will be selling the device unsubsidized. Apparently they’ve had significant success with their unsubsidized Value Plans, which have more affordable voice and data rates. However, not many people can afford to drop the $650+ that an iPhone costs on its own — so T-Mobile will also offer financing.
The article gives the example of “selling it for $99 and then charging $15 to $20 a month in payments over 20 months.” Which sounds remarkably similar to the subsidized model, when you get down to it. However, the advantage to this is that when you’re done paying off your iPhone in two years (or whatever), as long as you stick with the older device your monthly bills should be dramatically lower. And hopefully, it should also mean your device won’t be locked.
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