Cingular iPhone Ad Leaked: Rate Plans Revealed

Update: AT&T has now announced the iPhone rate plans.

Be the first to see this not-yet-released Cingular iPhone ad, revealed by a reliable source in a private iPhone consumer survey from Pinecone Research.

It appears the iPhone rate plans from Cingular may be the same as Cingular’s current plan options: $39.99 a month for 450 minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile calling, and 5,000 night and weekend minutes. The data plans will start at $4.99 a month for 200 messages OR a $19.99 a month data plan for 200 messages plus unlimited Internet and Visual Voicemail.

EDIT: In addition, the Cingular iPhone ad lists iPhone prices as $299 for the 4GB model and $399 for the 8GB model.

Sounds good to me. Click the ad to see a larger version of the image:

[The image has been removed at Pinecone Research’s request. Engadget Mobile still has it up in their post on the Cingular iPhone rate plans.]

You saw it here first. 😉

More on the Cingular iPhone ad:

41 thoughts on “Cingular iPhone Ad Leaked: Rate Plans Revealed”

  1. the ad is fake. the prices officially released were in the Cingular MSD from back in September. “No carrier subsidies” is also in the MSD. i guess i can say that now that apple has officially activated an iphone via the cingular activation process.

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  2. The rate scale is very simple, folks.

    The iPhone will cost: $1 less than the most you would ever imagine paying.

    AT&T is going to charge: Twice what seems humanly reasonable.

    Extra features from AT&T will cost: Four times what seems humanly reasonable.

    It is all carefully calculated.

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  3. Sorry, hit return too fast…That is SEPARATE from their text messaging plan that starts at $4.99 a month for 200 messages, etc.

    I can’t see AT&T offering the data plan for only $19.99.

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  4. “The data plans will start at $4.99 a month for 200 messages OR a $19.99 a month data plan for 200 messages plus unlimited Internet and Visual Voicemail.”

    Not likely. Cingular/AT&T currently charges $39.99 per month for unlimited data on their PDA plans. That is SEPARATE

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  5. This can’t be a true thing bc if they are trying to test consumer’s reaction towards the price’s product. It SHOULD talk about the product. Does it say anything about the iPhone’s feature which are its strongest points as an innovative product… You are paying $299 for the PHONE, whatever is described in this fake ad is about the subscription to Cingular…

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  6. This actually looks like a conjoint market (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjoint_analysis_(in_marketing) for to find out what this is) research analysis being run by cingular to decide at what prices people respond to for their tariffs.

    Its quite simple, ask questions that compare iphone at $299 with $40/month vs $499 with, say, $25/per month for same mins & texts.

    The question is, will cingular get a higher volume of customers with a lower upfront price? The short term cashflow hit of subsidising customers heavily could be outweighed by greater volume and long term margins. Whatever makes the more money over the 2 year contract will be the price.

    It’d be interesting to know what you think about which option you’d prefer them to do, I bet cingular would be!

    I would suggest the poor graphics are down to the fact that pinecone are just a market research agency. the’ve got some guy in their web design team who they’ve told to put the web questionaire together, hence the graphics are just gonna be cut from elsewhere on the web.

    What price would you go for?

    Anyway, back to drooling over the iphone…

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  7. This is the work of a very sad man with too little work (if his boss is reading this, give this man a spreadsheet to complete or something). First of all, no creative would design something that looks this poor. This looks like the work of some cracker jack direct marketing assholes. Definitely not someting that Cingular (or Apple) would allow or want produced. Since Apple has so much control over how the iPhone is sold, used, and portrayed, they would have to have some say over the advertising. Apple’s ads are by and large some of the best and most simplistic (just like their product and brand) of any brand. I can’t believe we’re debating the validity of some jerk-off fan boy’s idea of a fun Tuesday afternoon at the office.

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  8. Hey angry people, I haven’t seen the image but your logic for this being fake is way off base. The worst ads you’ll ever see are the ones thrown together for focus groups. They’re comps based on broad imagery before photo shoots are booked with the actual product. Besides, using an actual iPhone would expose Apple’s top secret device. I would tell you that if the ads looked real that that would be the telling of forgery. Sadly, I’m unable to see the comps so I can’t be too self-righteous, but I can tell you that most likely you will be embarrassed when you find out that you were wrong. Remember that truth is stranger than fiction.

    I do love how the web somehow licenses knee-jerk reactions as fact.

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  9. Can you post a textual representation of what the ad contained? Now that it’s been removed, this series of posts contains almost no usable information. Like, say, what was the iPhone price?

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  10. Seth, I completely agree it does look very shoddy. As I mentioned before, perhaps Cingular is trying to analyze consumer opinion on the rates/data plans rather than the ad design itself? I don’t know.

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  11. I gotta call a fake on this as well. There are too many inconsistencies from a design standpoint for this to be an actual Cingular/Apple ad. Like noted before, the woman NOT talking on an iPhone. The fact that Apple has promo shots of the iPhone with it being held on a white background, the random black squares make no sense. Inconsistencies with fonts compared to normal Cingular promo pages as well as fonts on this “ad” itself. Plus I don’t think Apple would agree to having to make customers pay so that they could use Visual Voicemail, when that’s a main feature of the phone; otherwise how would you check your voicemail?

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  12. Iphone will launch with text messaging and media max. THINK PDAS PEOPLE. WHY WOULD CINGULAR LAUNCH THE MOST EXPENSIVE PHONE IN ITS HISTORY AND PUT IT OUT WITH THE CHEAPEST RATE PLAN WE OFFER????? APPLE EXCLUSIVE RATEPLANS PEOPLE!!!

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  13. I can’t believe this was even posted. It’s so amateur. Truly a fake!

    Ah, but if only those prices were really true.

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  14. I completely understand your skepticism. My guess is that it may be a quick draw-up for Cingular to analyze consumer opinion of the ad content (the rates and data plans, etc.).

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  15. The girl in the photo…. isn’t on an iPhone.

    All the images are stock images, on Cingular/Apple’s websites. Does look sorta like a Frankenstein add. Would be great if it was true! Why weren’t these prices released when the iPhone debuted?

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  16. Perhaps it’s the ad in its early stages.

    I admire your confidence in knowing for a fact that it’s a fake. What makes you so sure?

    I mean I understand your skepticism, believe me, but leaks DO happen. Why don’t you take it with a grain of salt and see how this unfolds later on?

    Reply

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