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E-book boost: $99 iPhone refurbs from AT&T
December 27, 2008 | 4:29 am
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By David Rothman
Some low-income people are actually gravitating to the iPhone because they can use it for many purposes, not just as a phone.
Perhaps that’s a reason why AT&T is offering $99 refurbs in exchange for two-year wireless sign-ups. They are 8GB 3G models. AT&T’s $99 is quite a price drop from the earlier $150.
Smart move—this $99 approach (official AT&T page). And an even smarter move would be to couple phones and literacy and do cross-promo with Lexcycle/Stanza, eReader and other companies offering e-readers for the iPhone, as well as deals with publishers. Who knows? Maybe this could be Oprah territory. Can’t she bless both the Kindle and alternatives fit for certain people, even if she herself goes for the K machine?
Glad tidings for e-reader software outfits
But even without the above tie-ins, the $99 price is wonderful news for e-reader companies in addition to publishers of all sizes, especially given the closings of many bookstores in this recession. Ideally the AT&T plan will be one more justification for big publishers to back off from $25 e-books and set prices more sensibly, with a truly mass market in mind even in these dismal times.
Thanks to our billionaire-swayed policymakers, younger people here in the States have it especially tough economically. But in many cases they’re the ones with the eyes best fit for the small screens, and more than a few want greater portability than the Kindle would give them.
Forget about Steve Jobs’ observation that people don’t read anymore. More would if we made it easier for them. I remember buying Saul Bellow novels for a buck or two at the drugstore. The the chains dumbed down the contents of the reading racks or got rid of them, period. Now I’d like to see business and government make it easier for young people to buy and read good books again, even though I realize that availability is just part of the equation.
Hint for Obama: Maybe the Obama-ized FCC can at least go on go on record as encouraging phone companies to promote e-books. And no need for just iPhones to be involved. Perhaps Google can encourage the Android handset-sellers and telecom allies to act to couple the phones with literacy.
Detail: You can also buy fancier models refurbished from AT&T.
And a question for WalMart: Are you going to get into $99 iPhone refurbs, in time, even if you aren’t going after the $99 buyers for now?
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Comments:
Great connection! The literacy advocation includes the role of hand-held and head mounted devices. This will also drop into re-skills and up-skills for the younger labor force.
In my view, this is a much more needed agenda than development of the advanced reading applications at other book future discussions. You have opened an authentic incubation niche for the social agenda for screen reading. Keep the momentum.
I don’t think this is really quite as low-income friendly as it seems on first glance. You have to consider the $99 price versus the two years of $25-higher phone bills. $25 * $24 = $600, leading your final cost for that iPhone to be $700. (Well, in economic terms it would actually be something different than that, but I no longer remember how to do Time Value of Money calculations.)
It would be considerably cheaper in the long run to shell out the extra cash to buy an 8 gig iPod Touch.
But, Chris, in today’s mobile society, even poor families are buying cell phone service. Depends on the user. Like you, I went the Touch route, and my cell phone is a Trac Phone, with charges per minute. But my needs differ from others’: I’m not on the phone constantly and have other phones.
The other consideration is the average price of phone service in the states. With appropriate planning and the right wireless Internet tech, it could be much lower.
At any rate, when it comes to platforms, it’s good if e-books can go where the users are. Policymakers should keep this in mind if they want to use e-books to encourage literacy.
Meanwhile thanks to Gary for his comments, and I hope he’ll spread word about the potential here.
Thanks,
David
Then let them buy a normal cell phone. You can get a cheapie phone free with ordinary cell service.
Adding $25 per month for two years for smartphone service on top of ordinary cell service strikes me as a needless luxury—especially since ordinary cellphones are capable of minor “smart” tasks such as rudimentary web access and instant messaging without needing it.
I haven’t looked at the costs of the iPhone, but is the $25 really a tax on smartphones with no added service, or does that include data access? If it is the latter, then using the iPhone as an Internet gateway for your PC (i.e., tethering) could neutralize that fee by eliminating the monthly ISP charge.