Cingular might offer discounted monthly plans

Cramer over at TheStreet.com said that Cingular/AT&T was absolutely giddy when talking about the iPhone. Using this he translates AT&T's desire to gain marketshare as really an all out war against Verizon. While likely to be pure speculation, he says that AT&T might actually discount monthly plan prices in order to gain marketshare. Considering that AT&T's data packages are among the priciest in the business, its quite possible they will lower their prices to something more reasonable.

It does make sense that instead of subsidizing the iPhone price $200, it could be applied as a $15 monthly discount (or a special iPhone plan) over 2 years. From a financial point of view they would actually make more money considering the time value of money. If they offer a $200 discount now, that costs them more than offering the same discount over two years. Considering that Apple's iPhone sales rely on reasonable monthly pricing for the iPhone, hopefully Apple will convince Cingular to offer reasonable monthly plan prices. If not Apple could always threaten to be very liberal in handing out unlock codes, i.e. to anyone who wants one. Effectively allowing someone to buy an iPhone, cancel Cingular service within 30 days, get the unlock code from Apple and go to Tmobile.