So I've spent some time looking at this deal, and while I would agree it's not the best deal in the world I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. If you do the math using the basic iPhone 6, they are offering it for the price of $549 or $27.49/month on their plan. If you divide $549/24 it comes out to $22.90/month, but you need to factor in applecare which costs $99. $99/24 = $4.13 and that plus $22.90 = $27.03 so over buying outright you are paying.46/month more or a total of $11.04 over 24 months for the life of the contract.
I guess the question to consider is how much do you value applecare. I personally don't think the terms are worth the $99 myself, but if you are 100% bought into the apple ecosystem and purchase applecare every 2 years for your phone upgrade then the extra $5/year might be worth the premium to have the latest phone each year.
The one thing this might do though is get carriers to update their plans, because I do think this is a better deal than some of the carrier financing options, considering you get a new phone each year.
Slashdot Mirror
So I've spent some time looking at this deal, and while I would agree it's not the best deal in the world I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. If you do the math using the basic iPhone 6, they are offering it for the price of $549 or $27.49/month on their plan. If you divide $549/24 it comes out to $22.90/month, but you need to factor in applecare which costs $99. $99/24 = $4.13 and that plus $22.90 = $27.03 so over buying outright you are paying .46/month more or a total of $11.04 over 24 months for the life of the contract.
I guess the question to consider is how much do you value applecare. I personally don't think the terms are worth the $99 myself, but if you are 100% bought into the apple ecosystem and purchase applecare every 2 years for your phone upgrade then the extra $5/year might be worth the premium to have the latest phone each year.
The one thing this might do though is get carriers to update their plans, because I do think this is a better deal than some of the carrier financing options, considering you get a new phone each year.