Apple “appears to have Alphabet’s Google in the crosshairs,” Rachel Gunter writes for Market Realist. “Last month, Apple added Virgin Mobile USA to the list of its US carrier partners. The last time the company recruited a carrier partner was in 2013.”
“As part of the deal, Virgin and Apple are throwing a one-year party in the form of steep discounts for their customers,” Gunter writes. “Any customer who purchases a new or refurbished iPhone from either Apple or Virgin gets the opportunity to enjoy services on Virgin’s network for only $1 per month for up to a year. After that introductory offer, customers will normally pay $50 a month for Virgin’s network service.”
“The deal is part of a broader plan that will see Virgin drop support for Android phones on its network and instead become an iPhone-only carrier,” Gunter writes. “The deal that Apple has inked with Virgin could accelerate Android’s market share decline in the US.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is such a deal that even die-hard, irrational Apple-hating, fragmandroid settlers will have a very difficult time ignoring – especially given their penchant for being skinflints.
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Virgin Mobile USA becomes first Apple iPhone-only carrier; launches game-changing offer – June 23, 2017
Already jumped on this deal to replace my iPhone 5S!
And Google won’t somehow respond to this in kind? The only thing they have to their advantage is not caring if the Android phone itself makes money. Not so much the manufacturers though! I hope this strategy works towards Google share demise.
They already give androids away free, what do they have to do PAY you to take one?
Android market share demise? Not a chance. Most consumers in poverty-class nations are clamoring for $50 smartphones. If anything, Android market share will continue to climb. There’s nothing Apple can do to prevent it. Just like insects outnumber humans, Android will always outnumber iOS devices. Steep discounts might help Apple a bit in the U.S. but Google is totally embarrassing Apple in places like India. It’s a recap of Windows vs OSX on a much larger scale.
Apple’s only chance to compete with Android is to build long-lasting iPhones and improve services so current customers don’t leave the Apple ecosystem. Apple needs to keep well over a billion active users and feed them with as much content as they can tolerate.
If Apple really wanted to hurt Google it would need to do so by acquiring a powerful search engine to suck the ad-filled life out of Google Search. Of course, we all know it’s not going to happen.
So what happens after 1 year to the Virgin deal, can it be cancelled? It is a great deal for $1 a month, hopefully the quality is great and not frustrating
It certainly appears to be an incredible deal for a year. But, after the initial year is over, my current T-Mobile family plan is far less expensive for five people.
T-Mobile has its issues – signal strength is often weaker than for AT&T or Verizon, and coverage dropouts are more common. But I suppose that I get what I pay for…
I got the deal when it first came out. Bought a new iPhone 7. Love the phone and the service. When the year is up I will be sticking around. Overall, the cost is revenue neutral compared to the plan I came from.