
AT&T isn’t worried about competition from Apple’s own installment-payment plan for the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
Apple this week announced its first installment-payment plan, which lets users upgrade to a new iPhone after a year. Installments are paid over 24 months.
At an investors’ conference AT&T executive VP/CFO John Stephens said he doesn’t think many people will buy in to the Apple programs. “In reality, the stores of handset manufacturers don’t really sell a high percentage of our phones,” he said. “We sell our phones generally through our 23,000 company-owned retail stores and through our authorized agents and distributors. That’s a much, much higher — extensively higher — percentage than what we sell through handset- manufacturer stores.”
Carriers’ leasing and installment-payment plans have been available mainly though carrier stores.
See this report for more details on AT&T’s response.