Farewell, Free iPhone 7 Deals

Nothing lasts forever, and that includes those free iPhone 7 special offers for mobile users who were willing to trade in their old iPhone model. According a research note sent out by Wave7 Research, all members of the Big Four have practically ended their free iPhone 7 deals, with T-Mobile and Sprint discontinuing their respective offers a week ago, following AT&T’s decision to terminate its deal a week earlier. As for industry leader Verizon Wireless, it no longer offers a free iPhone 7 but still tries to attract new subscribers by promising as much as $550 to those willing to exchange their iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus.

When Apple launched its new iPhone 7 models, the flagship devices enjoyed immense support from major wireless carriers in the United States. Indeed, in order to lure new sign ups and get current subscribers to sign on for an additional couple of years, each of the Big Four offered a free iPhone 7 to users who traded in their iPhone 6 and signed up for a two year finance plan.

Always quick to the draw, T-Mobile was the first mobile operator to start offering a free iPhone 7 deal, and soon, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint followed suit. The special offers from these carriers were very popular, although some industry watchers believed that the deals lacked discipline. Last month, Sprint had claimed that preorders for the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus were up more than 375 percent in their first three days compared to last year’s launch of the iPhone 6. T-Mobile also revealed that the newest iPhone models went on to break all existing iPhone preorder records at T-Mobile.

Quite obviously, this was music to Apple’s ears. During the second quarter of this year, the tech giant had registered a 23 percent year over year decrease in smartphone sales, and the release of its iPhone 7 had contributed well in generating some momentum for the company to ride into the holiday shopping season. It also helped that Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7, the device it was planning to pit against the new iPhones, was going through a recall nightmare that never seemed to end.

Despite the fact that free iPhone 7 deals are no more, Apple is still in prime position to enjoy solid sales numbers going into the holidays. The company has always had its best quarterly results in the months spanning October to December, and this year should be no exception to that.