1 year ago, I renewed with the same provider, who offered me the same plan for £10/month.
1 month ago, same provider offered me 12GB data for £10/month. Shopping around indicated I could get 15-20GB for below £15/month if I jumped networks, and stuck on a sim-only plan.
Instead, I got an iPhone SE 2020 128GB (RRP £449) and 40GB monthly data for £70 up front and £26/month.
Total cost of ownership over the two years is £694.
Cost of the iPhone if I purchased it from Apple is £449.
That remains the remaining spend is £10.21/month for 40GB data.
I definitely got something discounted.
The last time I bought a phone (2016) there was no bundle that was cheaper than buying the phone and a sim-only plan.
This time around, the inverse is true.
The only thing I’m locked into is my plan for 2 years. I can do whatever I like with the handset, and intend to offload it in a year assuming Face ID is seamlessly usable in public again by then.
here in NZ 12GB is good for 6 months at the cost of £50
a typical iPhone plan for 24month is £80 or thereabouts.
1. Do we know what the contracts between Verizon-Apple look like? Verizon may get discounts for buying in bulk or for being a strategic partner.
2. Cell providers (like Verizon) may be funding OP's iPhone 12 with the monthly-payments of other customers that don't exercise their ability to upgrade their phone exactly every 24-months. I think this group may actually be rather large.
3. Interest rates for financing your iPhone via your cell provider's 2-year contract plan are likely lower than financing an iPad on a credit card or other third-party financing.
All of the above likely combine to make the iPhones proportionately cheaper than iPads, possibly significantly.
Shoving the payments onto the carrier isn't always a bad thing.
For example, I don't always have $1,100 lying around doing nothing, and these days I'd rather be liquid in case of sudden job loss or other emergency. So keeping that $1,100 in my emergency fund and shoving the payments onto the carrier at 0% interest is a better idea than paying up-front for a phone.