Before: Apple gets a cut from AT&T's monthly user tax, er..., fees. Your wallet gets whacked $399 times for an 8GB iPhone.
Today: Apple gets nothing, except for the wholeslae price of the iPhone. AT&T increases the data plan tax, er..., cost by $10 and you no longer have free SMS. Your wallet gets slapped $199 times for an 8GB iPhone.
Now this is the case for the US of A.
What it means is you, the iPhone buyer, will be forced to finance your next iPhone even though you can pay for a whole shipping crate of it in cash.
But no. You have to finance your next iPhone.
AT&T is not subsidizing your iPhone, it is forcing you to finance the iPhone with interest. How much? I'll tell you as soon as Apple tell me how much they charge AT&T for the iPhone.
