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Virgin Mobile on Thursday became the second prepaid wireless carrier in a week to offer the latest versions of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone for its pay-as-you-go customers.
Under the Virgin plan, customers pay the full freight for a 16GB iPhone 4S (US$649) or 8GB iPhone 4 ($549) but can subscribe for voice, text and data plans that range from as low as $30 to $55 a month.
Unlike the plan announced last week by Cricket Wireless, which is affiliated with Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) spinoff Leap Wireless, Virgin Mobile's offerings have limits on their usage.
For example, the US$35 monthly plan, which can be discounted to US$30 if a user elects to auto-pay the account, offers 300 talk minutes, unlimited texting and 2.5 GB of data.
There's also a mid-tier plan with the same text and data conditions but with 1,200 talk minutes. The upper tier has unlimited talk and text, but the same 2.5 GB data limit.
Cricket Subsidies
Cricket offers unlimited talk, text and data -- although data is throttled once the user reaches 2.3 GB -- for $55 a month.
The company also slightly subsidizes its Apple offerings. A 16 GB iPhone 4S is $499 and an 8GB iPhone 4 is $399.
Both plans compare favorably with those offered by the major carriers. Post-paid plans from Verizon, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Sprint (NYSE: S), which owns Virgin, charge $200 for a 4S and $100 for a 4, but require a two-year agreement.
To offset that subsidy, carriers charge more for service. Voice, text and data plans from them are in the range of $70 to $100 a month.
Important Milestone
"Apple is working very hard to ensure that anyone that wants an iPhone will be able to get an iPhone any way they want to," Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with the Gartner (NYSE: IT) Group, told MacNewsWorld.
"What we're seeing is a tremendous flexibility on the part of Apple to make sure this device can get into as many users' hands as users want it," he added. "It's an important milestone."
Apple has invested a lot of money over the years developing the iPhone, and now it's starting to leverage that investment by adding points to its distribution channel, explained Bob Egan, founder and chief analyst of the Sepharim Group.
Apple, he explained, built the "mystique" of the iPhone with its exclusivity agreement with AT&T. With its reputation solidly in place, it set out to increase the phone's reach by signing up Verizon and Sprint.
After that, it asked itself, "What can we do now for no incremental cost?" The answer is "quite simply expanding into a tier-free distribution network," Egan told MacNewsWorld. "That's what these prepaid operators represent."
For original news source visit:
Virgin Mobile on Thursday became the second prepaid wireless carrier in a week to offer the latest versions of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone for its pay-as-you-go customers.
Under the Virgin plan, customers pay the full freight for a 16GB iPhone 4S (US$649) or 8GB iPhone 4 ($549) but can subscribe for voice, text and data plans that range from as low as $30 to $55 a month.
Unlike the plan announced last week by Cricket Wireless, which is affiliated with Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) spinoff Leap Wireless, Virgin Mobile's offerings have limits on their usage.
For example, the US$35 monthly plan, which can be discounted to US$30 if a user elects to auto-pay the account, offers 300 talk minutes, unlimited texting and 2.5 GB of data.
There's also a mid-tier plan with the same text and data conditions but with 1,200 talk minutes. The upper tier has unlimited talk and text, but the same 2.5 GB data limit.
Cricket Subsidies
Cricket offers unlimited talk, text and data -- although data is throttled once the user reaches 2.3 GB -- for $55 a month.
The company also slightly subsidizes its Apple offerings. A 16 GB iPhone 4S is $499 and an 8GB iPhone 4 is $399.
Both plans compare favorably with those offered by the major carriers. Post-paid plans from Verizon, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Sprint (NYSE: S), which owns Virgin, charge $200 for a 4S and $100 for a 4, but require a two-year agreement.
To offset that subsidy, carriers charge more for service. Voice, text and data plans from them are in the range of $70 to $100 a month.
Important Milestone
"Apple is working very hard to ensure that anyone that wants an iPhone will be able to get an iPhone any way they want to," Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with the Gartner (NYSE: IT) Group, told MacNewsWorld.
"What we're seeing is a tremendous flexibility on the part of Apple to make sure this device can get into as many users' hands as users want it," he added. "It's an important milestone."
Apple has invested a lot of money over the years developing the iPhone, and now it's starting to leverage that investment by adding points to its distribution channel, explained Bob Egan, founder and chief analyst of the Sepharim Group.
Apple, he explained, built the "mystique" of the iPhone with its exclusivity agreement with AT&T. With its reputation solidly in place, it set out to increase the phone's reach by signing up Verizon and Sprint.
After that, it asked itself, "What can we do now for no incremental cost?" The answer is "quite simply expanding into a tier-free distribution network," Egan told MacNewsWorld. "That's what these prepaid operators represent."
For original news source visit:
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