In the battle for iPhone customers, AT&T may score one on Verizon this week. AT&T is offering something of greater value to iPhone customers while Verizon is stripping away what was once promoted as a major competitive benefit.
AT&T announced plans to offer a better deal on mobile insurance, which offers next day replacement of lost, stolen or damaged and out of warranty malfunctioning devices. The new AT&T plan will cost $ 4.99 a month with a $ 50 or a $ 125 deductable. That compares to the current Asurion program at $ 11.99 a month with deductibles running as high as $ 199.
By way of comparison, Verizon’s iPhone insurance program through Asurion is $ 6.99 a month. Apple also sells its own insurance. Dubbed the AppleCare Protection Plan, Apple peddles the service, which extends the standard Apple iPhone warranty for up to two years, for a flat $ 69 fee. The Apple plan, however, doesn’t offer coverage as broad as the wireless carriers.
“Insurance plans are a good profit margin. If you are buying a cell phone, particularly an iPhone that has a lot of glass in it, and insurance plan isn’t a bad idea,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner. “The old AT&T price is a bit high. Now it’s come down in price, and it more than competitive with what Verizon is offering.”
Metered Data Plans Compared
Meanwhile, Verizon is putting the kibosh on its unlimited smartphone data plans, including the iPhone, on July 7. The unlimited plans were offered as Verizon rolled out its iPhone 4 in a move to get customers to win customers from AT&T.
Now, Verizon users will have to choose one of four new data plans, starting at $ 10 and costing as much as $ 80. The $ 10 plan offers 75MG of data a month — but it’s available just for feature phones,…
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