Not if you're under 2 years. I'm fairly certain you only get the full subsidy if you're past the two years. I think there's a lesser subsidy they give you after 18 months.

According to my account page, I'll get a phone at full subsidy price 11/21/2010. I last signed a contract with AT&T July of 2009, when I bought my 3GS.

Yeah. Good point. I can see what Bruno and you are saying now.

Apple's carefully orchestrated product releases and (usually) well-secured product development lifecycles play important roles in their overall business strategy and have helped them get to where they are now.

As I said early on regarding this sample's appearance on the web, the story and details of how this all went down were probably going to be more interesting than the details revealed about the product itself. Someone else even compared the people involved to characters from a Coen brothers movie. Quite apt.

It wouldn't be entirely out-of-character for Apple to now pull that product entirely (and string the 3GS along for a bit until the 2011 model comes out) and then try and pin the cost of doing that on whichever combination of Gizmodo, Hogan and Powell it is their wish to destroy.

Peter

Ah, that's right. Still, I don't think it's 12-18 months, I'm almost certain it's simply 18 months. I seem to recall that with the 3GS, if you were 12-18 months, the subsidy brought it down to around $400-something. *edit* That is, for the most expensive model */edit*

tanstaafl.

Really? I've only heard that type of thing applied to some small accessory, not a mainstay of company income...

Think about how it works.

Apple has to be ready with hundreds of thousands of the item ready for the release date, maybe a million or more. The production for that kind of thing is tightly scheduled. Both for the logistics of the materials that have to come together, and for the economics of same.

Apple has fronted serious cash to have that quantity of items ready for sale. They need to be sold to recoup.

Depending, it might be the lesser hit to sell old stock at a discount, than to suffer the costs of holding back a product that is ready to sell.

For Peter... Once the product is in "DVT" stage, it's already too close to release to dump. I've seen plenty of systems and options they've dumped in the past, though none because of a leak. None made it as far as DVT either, such as a G5-packing 17" PowerBook.