Incentive Hell: Major Mobile Carriers Trip Over Themselves To Sell New iPhones

The bribes incentives to buy an iPhone appear to have ramped way up for the launch of the iPhone 13 Pro.

All of the major phone carriers are in the midst of battle in terms of offering incentives for customers to upgrade to the newest model iPhone. Verizon, for example, has recently decided it was going to match both AT&T and T-Mobile with an offer to give away the new model.

The major carriers are already taking orders for the latest model from customers who have qualifying trade-ins and unlimited data plans, Bloomberg wrote this weekend. Verizon was previously offering up to $800, but has since bumped up its incentive.

AT&T set the tone last year when the iPhone 12 came out by offering a free phone to anyone with a trade-in and an unlimited data plan. The company added 789,000 subscribers in Q2 2020 as a result. 

The increased incentives come as the result of a well-expected push to boost subscribers heading into the holidays. 

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Butler said: “AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile launched generous iPhone 13 deals, marking an uptick in promotional activity that could crimp service prices and margin expansion in coming quarters but yield higher revenue and profit growth in the long term.”

While the push for subscribers is to be expected, no one is asking the key question of whether or not the phones are driving as much interest as they once would. We understand the major carriers are going to be forced to compete and – not unlike automakers – that’s going to result in incentives being offered to customers.

But since all of the carriers are trying to push the same phone, at what point can the lack of subscribers be attributed to a lack of interest in the product, instead of the service?