iPhone: 'Clearly profitable for AT&T'
May 20th 2008
New York Times reports that nearly half of iPhone users changed carriers in order to use the device, according to a survey of 460 iPhone users by Rubicon Consulting. The survey found that the average iPhone user was paying $19 more in phone bills than before.
"The numbers are big enough that clearly this thing is profitable for AT&T," said Michael Mace, a principal at Rubicon. "The big financial leverage is on the people who switch carriers. It's not like you have to add new cell towers for them; they're almost all profit. And those people are hard to come by, because you have to switch them off somebody else's network."
The most interesting bit? The survey also found that 36 percent of iPhone users regularly carried another mobile phone as well, most often a BlackBerry.
"I can easily picture somebody carrying both an iPhone and a RIM device," said Mace. "Even though it sounds really geeky, to them it makes sense."
Once iPhone 2.0 ships, those Crackberries are going away...
What's your take?
