Fortune thinks ATT wants to pick up $200 of your iPhone.
This could mean big, big things for Apple if it's true. I think this strategy makes the 10 million phones by the end of the year goal look like a drop in the bucket. Apple's not in the habit of selling anything at a loss though, but that's okay here since it's ATT that would pick up the tab.
The question is, why would they? And why wouldn't they at launch? Was it so calculated that ATT knew demand would drive 5-6 million phone sales that they could rake in bucks for, in return for taking the risk on the iPhone, and then after a year and version 2.0 they'd announce the subsidy, to go deeper into the market?
Brilliant strategy if true. For one it's obvious; it's just pricing things like the market will bear. Second, this makes the iPhone like an iPod; it puts it into kids' price ranges. Can you say "ubiquitous"? I knew you could.
So at the expense of some cash, ATT gets to own the market for what could be an iPhone-like domination of the phone market for the next 5-10 years. Bold.
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