May 3, 2024

Apple Retail Stores Could Soon Offer Prepaid and Month-to-Month iPhone Plans

Posted June 7, 2014 at 1:34am by iClarified · 9817 views
In an effort to help boost iPhone sales in its own retail stores, Apple is planning on soon offering pre-paid and month-to-month plans in its United State retail stores, according to 9to5mac. The plans would be offered to customers who when purchasing a full-priced, unlocked iPhone, rather than signing a two-year agreement.

If someone wanted to get a month-to-month service today, they would have to buy the iPhone at the Apple store, then go to a local carrier and setup their service with the device. However, that could all change if Apple offers the service directly through the Apple Store. Apple will be patterning with AT&T and T-Mobile for this new initiative.

Apple Stores will soon stock up on AT&T GoPhone pre-paid activation kits and SIM cards, and stores will use the existing T-Mobile SIM cards for customers that will choose T-Mobile pre-paid plans. Apple will begin training its store employees on the new pre-paid and month-to-month iPhone sales practices in the coming weeks. Sales staff will promote AT&T’s $60 per month pre-paid plan (with 2.5GB of internet data and unlimited talk and text) to those seeking AT&T plans, while the stores will offer $50/month (1GB LTE data) and $70/month (5GB LTE data) unlimited data plans to customers seeking T-Mobile devices. The activations must be done at the time of purchase in Apple Stores and those devices will be unable to be returned to Apple for a refund.

Retail employees will offer AT&T's $60 unlimited talk/text plan with 2.5GB of data, and T-Mobile's offerings include $50/month for 1GB of data and $70/month for 5GB of data.

This new initiative will reportedly begin in the last week of June, and is a continued effort by the company to push iPhone sales in their own stores versus other retailers.