 Hey guys, Ken Ross here, and I'm a business consultant that specializes in reducing costs for businesses By looking at their essential expenses and today boy. I have a doozy today I watched the Apple keynote presentation for the iPhone the Apple watch and the iPods pro AirPods Pro I hope you had a chance to check it out And if you don't go ahead and check the description down below where they talk about the brand new products from Apple I love covering events like this because it's always Really great to see something new and exciting in the world of technology And especially when it comes to telecommunications technology Apple has always done a great job with its iPhones and this time it's no exception They have quite a array of new features and they've they've Stirred up a lot of excitement for people one of those things I really want to cover because I feel like in this area of cost reduction Something I specialize in I don't want you to fall into the pitfalls of Understanding the carrier relationships when it comes to these releases So what I plan to do is to help you understand Right What is really going on when apple says you can get carrier discounts? And the iphone is essentially free or the iphone is heavily discounted. What does that really mean for you? How is the Providers of service actually setting those things up So i'm going to actually spend a little bit of time breaking that down because if you're not reading the fine print If you're not looking at these things, then you really won't understand What's going on here? So let's get into that If you're paying attention, right? And if you were really excited about the iphone 14 like I was and the iphone 14 pro and the plus and all these things Especially the new watch and the the new airpods too. I want those You did not necessarily pay as much attention to to What the pricing details were for the new iphone? You knew kind of around Hey, it's going to be the same prices as the old phones But they heavily emphasized in their key, you know Carrier discounts, right? What does that really mean? What what is going on when it comes to these carrier discounts? Let's talk a little bit about that. The first thing is I want to talk about AT&T, right? If you go to their website today and you go to Apple.com and you check out the iphone 14 released information and it talks about Hey, this is the discounts that the carrier is going to give you you have to read the fine print You have to understand what's going on. So let's give it an overview So AT&T you have to make up to the first three payments of about $28 On their monthly installment plan as if you were paying for the phone Before they start affording you the discounts and the way they're going to issue those discounts to you is via a credit on your bill Let me make sure that's really clear for you. It's going to be a credit on your bill You're going to see a charge for the installment plan for your phone And then you're going to see a credit That's how it's supposed to work and that's over 36 months I hope you see a trend here as we go along The next thing is sprint sprint is actually doing a little bit different type of deal They have anywhere from $340 rebates all the way up to $900 rebates And they segment out what parts of it are part of the The credit that you get and another part that is prepaid On a prepaid card that you get that that you can use online or in specialized apps And you only have six months to use it So the time clock is ticking when you get this rebate card You have to use the value asserted value that you got from Sprint before the time runs out or you lose the money that you were you were afforded as the discount for the phone Next up is T-Mobile T-Mobile Offers anywhere depending on the phone and the plan that you choose anywhere from $200 to a thousand dollars And it's heavily based on plan right and the phone that you trade in So when you actually go to T-Mote or when you go to the app of website You have to select which phone you're going to trade in and then Which carrier discount you want to apply to that phone? And it does all the calculations for you and it gives you a rate based on not only the phone that you choose The condition of that phone the plan that you're in all of these things are going to factor into your rebate And in the end the carrier is going to afford you that discount T-Mobile also has The same type of system that AT&T has they are going to discount your phone Based on your bill. So you're going to use for the next two years. You're going to pay on an installment plan On this iphone and they are going to give you credits. So you'll see a Charge and you'll see a credit on your bill Last up my favorite Verizon wireless. I always pick on Verizon on my channel. I love Verizon for the craftiness that they do sometimes Um, I love them so much to death that I I'm still a customer of Verizon But I love to pick on them. So what are they offering right? What is their deal? Anywhere from 400 to 800 for an eligible trading phone, right? And that is also based on plans. So if you have one of the unlimited plans The tiered unlimited plans that they're on You're going to get a lower discount than if you're on the plus plan with all the bells and whistles That's where you're afforded the most money That's also in form of a 36 month credit. So you have to use The service for 36 months in order to get the rebates now Want to make sure I make this clear to you because I I don't think most people are getting this, right? What this is essentially doing to you is it's locking you into a carrier Not necessarily a rate plan per se, but a carrier for a certain period of time And why is that important to carriers because they are actually out to keep and retain their customers, right? The iphone is such an a compelling product. They're willing to give you a discount To get the phone To keep you as a customer reason why this is so important to them is that they are in the in the 5g war, right? We're trying to acquire as many customers as we can In our territory and expand our reach of 5g and have a huge 5g customer footprint I would encourage you to heavily consider what that means, right? If you are wanting to invest in a cell phone And a cell phone plan and all the things that come with it Asking the carrier to to pony up some dough up front to pay for your phone Is is basically akin to Them giving you a loan so that they can continue to use you in their master plan And that's exactly what they're doing here. So don't be confused Don't misunderstand the message here. Apple is doing something that's great For consumers. They've produced a great product. They're also doing what's great for business And there is no reason for these carriers to want to offer these discounts if there was no other incentive for them Please know that I'm always here as a resource to help out with that I'm going to tell you exactly what I would do So when it comes to the release of any new thing, especially when apple comes out with new products They're very compelling people rush to the stores to go get them. They want to grab them up as soon as they can A lot of folks have Great deals with their carriers or even with apple themselves to upgrade their phones every other year or do those types of things I highly suggest That you remain in control of your technology that you don't allow Companies and other organizations to utilize this tactic to keep you around because honestly I really do feel like the convergence in the telecommunication space Is very much upon us and these types of deals right now where they're locking you into up to three years With a carrier to afford a discount, right? The only way you reap the benefit of this discount for these iPhones is to actually keep an iPhone On their plan on on Verizon or Sprinter team up whatever plan you're on For the time period that they give you if you don't what happens is you have to actually pay up the balance So are you going to keep your phone for three years? And in the end what that means is that when you give up your phone Verizon owns your phone. You don't own it yourself So you have to pay them To keep the phone in order to trade it in in order to get into something else And this vicious cycle of remaining under the the care of a carrier I like the pun pun intended the care of a carrier Remains and they remain In control of What it is they can do to you as a customer their rates could change they could add things They could subtract things and you have to kind of go for the ride So that is my word of caution to you. That's my my thought about this and what I do specifically is is I remain Independent I buy my phones outright I pay for apple care if I need apple care. I protect my own phones I don't buy carrier protection plans. There are many options out there to Ensure your phone to replace your phone You should look at all of them You should actually analyze and look at your bills and understand your statements because I know There's a lot of people out there and I've met a few of them In my travels Around the state here and talk to people who are paying Extra fees and extra things because they're locked to this carrier and they don't see Everything that's in their bill is something they can understand They're out to confuse you they're out to keep the information away from you and you need to remain independent You need to be able to move and say no I can no longer accept what you're doing here So I'm moving on help yourself when it comes to this do not over invest in your carrier Because of a new phone And please tell me in the comments section below what you think about Apple and the new products what what you think about the information I brought here I'm going to put links to different resources a link to the actual Keynote presentation that apple released that talks about the different products. Well, please Please Understand and really Analyze what it is you're out to do here because Ultimately, you could be you could be trapped. You could be in a situation that you did not understand before That's what I have today guys. Thank you for your time I really do appreciate you taking this journey with me on the iphone 14 and what it is the carriers are up to Please subscribe to my channel. Please let other people know i'm out here Given the best information I can based on the what I see going on in this in this crazy telecommunications space And stay tuned to this channel for more updates. I have a lot more content I'm I'm going to be delivering to this channel in the weeks to come I have a lot of things in the works Would love it if you you'd tell your friends About this if you'd like this video if you'd share it and visit my website I'm ken ross calm and until I see you next time I'll see you around