Will Carriers Subsidize The iPad?
February 8th, 2010
The Austrian service provider Hutchison Austria has announced that when the iPad becomes available in their nation, they’ll offer a substantial subsidy with a 2-year contract. CEO Berthold Thoma said:
Hutchison Austria will be the first Austrian carrier to bundle the iPad. We will do so via our long-established laptop bundle, which offers customers a 333euro rebate if they agree to a 2yr contract offering 5GB of data for 29.90euro.
There’s no official price on the iPad in Europe yet, but Apple products tend to have a 1:1 dollar to euro on the continent. If that pricing trend continues, that’s half the price of the entry level 3G enabled model knocked off.
A commenter at 9 to 5 Mac has pointed out that this deal is the same as Hutchison offers for netbook and notebook users, so is not much of a departure from normal.
We asked the question, “Where’s the iPad subsidy?“, but it remains to be seen if any of the United States carriers will offer similar deals. A subsidy might make the iPad more tempting for frequent travelers.
[via 9 to 5 Mac]
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