DBMandrake
2nd June 2010, 01:55 PM
Well well, I think we'll be seeing a lot more about this in the geek news circles:
http://gizmodo.com/5553139/say-goodbye-to-unlimited-data-on-the-ipad-3g
Remember the much trumpeted Unlimited AT&T data plan that Apple announced for the iPad 3G when it was first announced in February ?
$30/month (£20) for unlimited data. Not just "unlimited" in the UK sense, but unlimited. Much ado was made by Steve Jobs about what a breakthrough this was during the Apple keynote.
Now just one month after the 3G model has gone on sale and AT&T have pulled a fast one, eliminating the unlimited iPad plan.
In it's place we have $25/month (£17) for a measly 2G of data, or $15/month (£10) for a miserable 200MB.
These new prices are worse than all the UK networks, and make Three's pricing look positively outstanding.
Of course they say that the old unlimited plan will be grandfathered for anyone already on it, but because it was a no-contract month by month plan that you could downgrade or put on hold any time you liked, you can bet that if you put the plan on hold even once you could never get it back again...
Along with this, AT&T have also changed the iPhone pricing to bring it in line with the new iPad plans - previously there was one $30/month (£20) "unlimited" data plan for the iPhone which was widely known to be a fair use limit of 5GB, now the most data you can get on the iPhone there is 2GB unless you want to pay extra usage charges.
So what the hell happened ? Here is my theory.
When the unlimited iPad plan was first announced, speculation was that AT&T had caved to Apples demands for the plan in exchange for extending the AT&T iPhone exclusivity, possibly until next year. This is only speculation but I think AT&T have got wind of a Verizon/Sprint (CDMA) version of the iPhone being released sooner than expected, maybe even in a few weeks or months time, and have basically said screw you Apple.
There is no way AT&T would make a move like this iPad plan back peddling with the fallout it will cause for Apple unless they were reasonably confident that loss of their iPhone exclusivity was imminent. (Remember O2 didn't find out they lost exclusivity until Orange made a public statement) From this I think we will see a CDMA version of the iPhone HD (or whatever it's called, and that's my bet on what it will be called) and possibly quite soon.
Kinda puts the UK network pricing (as bad as it can be) and the fact that we do have multiple iPhone networks available into perspective doesn't it :)
http://gizmodo.com/5553139/say-goodbye-to-unlimited-data-on-the-ipad-3g
Remember the much trumpeted Unlimited AT&T data plan that Apple announced for the iPad 3G when it was first announced in February ?
$30/month (£20) for unlimited data. Not just "unlimited" in the UK sense, but unlimited. Much ado was made by Steve Jobs about what a breakthrough this was during the Apple keynote.
Now just one month after the 3G model has gone on sale and AT&T have pulled a fast one, eliminating the unlimited iPad plan.
In it's place we have $25/month (£17) for a measly 2G of data, or $15/month (£10) for a miserable 200MB.
These new prices are worse than all the UK networks, and make Three's pricing look positively outstanding.
Of course they say that the old unlimited plan will be grandfathered for anyone already on it, but because it was a no-contract month by month plan that you could downgrade or put on hold any time you liked, you can bet that if you put the plan on hold even once you could never get it back again...
Along with this, AT&T have also changed the iPhone pricing to bring it in line with the new iPad plans - previously there was one $30/month (£20) "unlimited" data plan for the iPhone which was widely known to be a fair use limit of 5GB, now the most data you can get on the iPhone there is 2GB unless you want to pay extra usage charges.
So what the hell happened ? Here is my theory.
When the unlimited iPad plan was first announced, speculation was that AT&T had caved to Apples demands for the plan in exchange for extending the AT&T iPhone exclusivity, possibly until next year. This is only speculation but I think AT&T have got wind of a Verizon/Sprint (CDMA) version of the iPhone being released sooner than expected, maybe even in a few weeks or months time, and have basically said screw you Apple.
There is no way AT&T would make a move like this iPad plan back peddling with the fallout it will cause for Apple unless they were reasonably confident that loss of their iPhone exclusivity was imminent. (Remember O2 didn't find out they lost exclusivity until Orange made a public statement) From this I think we will see a CDMA version of the iPhone HD (or whatever it's called, and that's my bet on what it will be called) and possibly quite soon.
Kinda puts the UK network pricing (as bad as it can be) and the fact that we do have multiple iPhone networks available into perspective doesn't it :)