This Year's iPhone Promotions Are Good News for Telecom Investors

Wireless carriers were extremely aggressive last year when Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) released the new iPhone. Soon after Apple announced the iPhone 7, T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) started offering subscribers a free iPhone if they traded in an eligible device. It didn't take long for Verizon (NYSE: VZ), AT&T (NYSE: T), and Sprint (NYSE: S) to start copying T-Mobile's promotion.

"It turns out free iPhones weren't a great way to get people to switch," T-Mobile COO Mike Sievert said at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia Conference earlier this month. "We led the way with free iPhone last year, and within a few days everybody had copied it. And we looked at ourselves and said, 'Okay, well, what exactly does this accomplish?'"

It seems the industry learned its lesson. Promotions are much more tame this year, with T-Mobile and Verizon offering $300 off a new iPhone with a trade-in. Sprint is offering the new iPhone for $0 per month with a trade-in, but that's just to lease the device. AT&T, meanwhile, continues to go after bundlers, offering a buy one, get one deal for subscribers that take both wireless and television.

Source: Fool.com