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UK carriers discount iPads

by Dana Franklin Feb 22nd 2011 at 1:30PM

iPad: now only £99 with 24 month contract

Orange and T-Mobile in the UK slashed prices for iPad models with 3G connectivity to as low as GB£99 with a 24-month contract. In addition to boosting new business for these popular mobile carriers, the "limited time" offers appear to be a strategy for clearing inventory ahead of the highly anticipated launch of a next-generation device.

New customers qualify for a £99 iPad by signing up for an Orange data plan priced at £27 per month. Meanwhile, existing Orange and T-Mobile customers qualify for the discount with iPad data service starting at £25 per month. The monthly fee provides iPad users in the UK with up to 1 GB of "anytime" mobile data. The current offer represents price cuts of at least £100. Previously, subsidized pricing for the iPad with 3G started at £199 for existing customers and £229 for new customers.

A new 3G-enabled iPad without a carrier contract costs £541.

It's unclear whether these popular UK carriers -- that provide mobile services to approximately 37 percent of the UK -- have been informed of Apple's plans for a new iPad or are simply making an educated guess about the device's immediate future. The iPad was originally announced over a year ago in January 2010, and it went on sale in April 2010. Much like its cousins in the iPod and iPhone families, the iPad is expected to follow an annual release cycle. Many expect the "iPad 2" to go on sale before the end of April 2011.

[via iPad Watcher]

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Orange and T-Mobile in the UK slashed prices for iPad models with 3G connectivity to as low as GB£99 with a 24-month contract. In...
 

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10 Comments

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Ben Crowe

Wow only £99 + £27 so in total it will cost me £747 in total, well what do you know even if they gave these things away it would still be to expensive for me at the moment. http://weirdben.blogspot.com

February 23 2011 at 1:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mobiles

I suspect they have dropped the prices because of samsung iPad 10.1 and Dell Streak

February 23 2011 at 2:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam

Now if only US carriers would get the hint. ATT and Verizon are losing a ton of revenue due to the lack of subsidy on the iPad. I think its because they sold their souls to the Microsoft and Android demons due to the loss of exclusivity.

February 23 2011 at 2:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SIP

I wouldn't cream my pants just yet with this news.

After 16 years of network-loyalty and being tied to 12/18/24 month contracts, I negotiated a basic rolling phone contract with one of "these popular mobile carriers" which costs me £10 per month for 600 x-network minutes, 600 SMS, unlimited free landline calls and unlimited data (fair use applies and capped at 750MB per month but crap signal quality and slow page loads).

The same carrier wants me to spend £25 per month for a measly 1GB of data on my iPad, when the 3 network has a no-fixed-term contract at £15 per month for 10GB of data, better signal quality with fast page-loads in all the places I visit (or am likely to visit in the future).

My own take on this is that "these popular mobile carriers" didn't quite sell as many iPads as they thought they would, so they're trying to get rid of stock before the iPad2 is released. They would be better off charging a little bit more for the hardware, reducing the monthly subs and increasing the 1GB to maybe 5GB per month -- most people aren't going to hit the limit but psychologically it makes one hell of a difference.

February 22 2011 at 5:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to SIP's comment
Gk

If they didn't sell all their stock iPads they could surely return them to Apple.

More likely is that they had a sales target for these data plans which weren't met in light of the competition from 3, so they're trying to sweeten the deal by adding these popular devices. They do the same with all sorts of things: subsidised laptops, even unrelated things like Xboxs, Wiis, etc.

February 22 2011 at 6:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TheCastro

I hope this happens state side with the iPad2. Would be awesome.

February 22 2011 at 4:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim Atkinson

I highly suspect that they've dropped their prices as they have failed to meet their original sales targets!

February 22 2011 at 4:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dkjess

Well this is not exactly breaking news. This happens in most European countries.

February 22 2011 at 2:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mack

What UK carriers have consistently failed to do is provide a dual sim plan for a single account where one person can have both an iPhone and a 3G iPad and it doesn't matter whether the person is using iPhone data or iPad data - it all comes off the same plan.

February 22 2011 at 2:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mack's comment
glad

I am in agreement with you on that as they are just trying to gouge us!!

February 22 2011 at 2:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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