Filed under: Retail, Odds and ends, Apple
Apple employees are receiving their iPhones
We've heard from a source inside an Apple Store (thanks!) that the free iPhones promised to every yearlong Apple employee have started to appear. If you know one, now is the time to offer to take them out for ice cream. And, you know, if they need someone to hold their new iPhone while they finish off that Chunky Monkey, you'll be right there.What's unclear is how that $12M bill will appear on Apple's bottom line - maybe we'll hear in the earnings conference call tomorrow. From what we've heard, AT&T employees probably aren't happy, as they get no discount at all - on the phones or the plans. Thanks a lot, Randall Stephenson. Thanks for nothing.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Keith said 10:12AM on 7-25-2007
AT&T employees can get a discount on the voice portion of their iPhone plan. I have a family plan with 4 lines, one of which is my iPhone and all of the voice lines get the AT&T employee discount. The only part of the plan that does not get a discount is the iPhone unlimited data portion.
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Albert Martin said 10:45AM on 7-25-2007
Quite the old picture there ... lol ... Quicksilver tower, old school iMac and the Aluminum Powerbook .... ahhhh, we have come a long way have we not :)
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Matt said 10:49AM on 7-25-2007
Why should AT&T employees expect a discount on the phone? It's an Apple product, made by Apple employees. A discount on the plan, ie, AT&T's product, is what I'd expect for AT&T employees.
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rdas7 said 9:07AM on 8-22-2007
And the first comment on this story is an AT&T employee saying they 'do' get a discount. Are TUAW just completely making stuff up?
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Matteo said 11:07AM on 7-25-2007
My compliments to Steve Jobs.
Not all companies offer such a big "present" to ALL employees. This is a great move from Jobs.
I work in real estate... And have been for more than a year. I will let my boss read this news, maybe he gets inspired by it, who knows :-)
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JKT said 5:33PM on 7-25-2007
How Apple should account for this seems easy--put it under either R&D (Apple employees will provide plenty of feedback to the iPhone developers about how they think the iPhone could be improved) or under training, as all Apple employees need to know about their company's products.
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Eric said 11:11AM on 7-25-2007
How can you see those other computers in the background? I only see a Powerbook.
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Jonathan Johnson said 11:24AM on 7-25-2007
The economics are quite simple. In the original announcement, I believe it had the number 17000 for the number of Apple employees that would receive iPhones. This is 12 million, as you point out.
Now, look at how much cash on hand Apple has 12.58 billion in cash (accoding to Yahoo finance). It is common knowledge that they have a lot of this money invested, and earning interest. With this knowledge, 12 million is .09% of their total cash on hand. With Apple investing their cash on hand, it is clear to me that they most likely make more on interest in a single day than this iPhone giveaway is costing them.
Add to that the total cost of hardware for Apple is *not* $600.
Additionally, there most likely is some of each monthly contract fee coming back to Apple, making it possible that with a 2 year commitment from each of these phones, it is possible for Apple to turn a profit on the phones given away (assuming that the early reports of around $250 manufacturing costs were correct, and Apple gets a little over $10 per month, which are both speculative but believable)!
Anyways, it's one of the lowest cost ways for Apple to increase morale, and I think it's a great move, especially when looking at how it will affect their bottom line -- practically in no way at all!
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PK said 11:29AM on 7-25-2007
@Eric:
I think Albert Martin was looking at the placard to the right of the PowerBook in the picture, not at any computers in the background.
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Max said 11:30AM on 7-25-2007
Is this the Apple Store Short Hills?
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zer0her0 said 11:40AM on 7-25-2007
Albert, that's a Titanium PowerBook.
Eric, on the sign in the foreground, lower right corner of the pic.
That has to be one of the first dozen stores to open. Can't believe it's already been over 6 years since they started opening.
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Mystic said 11:34AM on 7-25-2007
Well isn't that nice. I've been waiting 3 weeks to get my defected iPhone replaced from the Apple store. They are still waiting for 'mine' to come in, even though they have new iPhones in stock.
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Mike said 11:45AM on 7-25-2007
Businesses, as far as I know, cannot write-off phones given to employees as a business expense unless the phone is primarily for business use. Which means, these phones would essentially be part of an employee's compensation package, and would be taxable to the employee, unless they need them to perform their jobs. I think.
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Kelly said 12:00PM on 7-25-2007
Apple employees also receive a percentage off AT&T plans and have been since long before the iPhone
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Jeff Huff said 3:07PM on 7-25-2007
Wow, that is an old picture. That is me and my wife. That is the Chandler store in Arizona. Not sure when that was taken. Could be when the store opened. Would be 2002 since the Al powerbooks came out in Jan 2003. Actually, I am typing this comment on the Ti Powerbook from the Chandler store purchased in Nov 2002. I think the store manager at that time was often walking around taking pictures at big store events.
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Blair said 3:17PM on 7-25-2007
Jeff-
Hey there fellow Chandler Apple store shopper! :)
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pagercam said 3:46PM on 7-25-2007
Is his Steveness giving a discount or paying for an AT&T phone plan???
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Fritz Laurel said 4:50PM on 7-25-2007
@4:Matteo
LMAO -- what, are you looking for a free house? Now, that would be a great gift!
Cheers,
FL
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halhiker said 3:08AM on 7-26-2007
Randall Stephenson, thanks for nothing, indeed. On iDay, it took me forever to activate. I went to bed on Friday and worked the customer service line for hours Saturday before sending an angry e-mail to Randall Stephenson. Since his e-mail is not public knowledge I tried a number of combinations hoping to get the right one. No luck.
I also sent a CC to Steve Jobs at Apple. Within an hour, I get a reply for Mr. Jobs with an apology and a request for patience. Funny thing, too, within an hour after that I finally got an AT&T customer service rep to activate my iPhone.
To this day, I have not be able to contact Mr. Stephenson. I tried AT&T's customer service to try to ask for a way to contact him and the rep actually wrote back and said, " I can't help you locate Randall Stephenson because I do not know who he is". I think I'll save that e-mail forever and read whenever I need a laugh.
My anger at AT&T has subsided only because it has drifted off in the wake of my elation with iPhone. It's a magical device when not held back by AT&T. If AT&T can stay out of the way of Apple's innovation I guess I'll their customer for a long time, even if I never do get to send an e-mail to their CEO.
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