FREEDOMPOP SHOWS HOW APPLE AS WE KNOW IT MAY DIE SOMEDAY $AAPL
FreedomPop is a new start-up that plans to challenge AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) by providing free mobile data–500 MB per month. Both AT&T and Verizon have huge margins on mobile data because of the lack of competition. AT&T and Verizon use these big margins to subsidize Apple‘s iPhone, Google‘s Android and other devices. The big carriers provide a higher amount of subsidies on iPhones than on Android devices. An iPhone that costs the consumer $199 may cost a carrier $500 to $700 even though they may be buying millions of these devices. The carriers more than make up for the upfront subsidies over the life of the