Walmart Permanently Discounts iPhone 5c to $29 and iPhone 5s to $99 [Updated]

So glad I live in the uk.. People in the states pay so much for cell service.. I bought the iPhone 5s full price (sim free) unlocked and pay £12.90 (roughly $20) a month and get totally unlimited data (no caps).. 600 minutes and 5000 texts.. Plus I get free roaming on AT&T & T-Mobiles networks in the states.. Austrailia and a bunch of other countries are free also. So I can continue to use my iPhone just as if I was still in the uk. Ironic that I can get unlimited data in the states cheaper than people who actually live there :D.. Plus from December 2015 roaming charges are being completely abolished within the EU and some countries in the EEC.. The USA is really very anti - competitive! T - Mobile seems to be the only thing driving any sort of competition over there..

Oh the days of this forum where $29 phones would be for "people who can't afford iPhone"...

Funny, just yesterday in the Android Auto thread, some people were saying that while CarPlay will be in luxury cars, Android Auto will be in cheap cars like Toyotas, Hondas and Hyundais because those cars, much like Android, are for peasants.

If a $50 Android phone is for peasants, I can't imagine what that makes a $29 iPhone. ;)

Oh the days of this forum where $29 phones would be for "people who can't afford iPhone"...

What do they do if you buy a 'Droid? Sell it for negative money on a contract? If it's just free, $29 or $99 is easily worth the upgrade.

That is just because the diabolic "subsidy" system in the USA. In other countries, with real competence, most people will not be pushed to buy a high end phone (due to the apparent inexpensiveness and the “even if don’t get the phone I still have to pay almost the same to the carrier, so…”). Instead you can see the real price of each item, and pay according to your needs.

For example, my mother bought a Lumia 520 (about $120 off contract, SIM free… - iPhone 5c, is about $600-), and she only pays the amount of data/voice/text she really uses. She is in a postpaid account, but she can leave anytime freely, and there is not a base or minimum monthly fee. So, as she doesn’t use so much data or voice or text, some months she pays like $2 or $3, and an average of $5 or $6. This is the way it should be everywhere. If you use more, you pay more, BUT if you use little, you pay little, or even nothing if you did not use that month.

And by the way, I am talking about a country member of the European Union for more than 25 years, not a developing nation where people's salary is $200 a month.

That is just because the diabolic "subsidy" system in the USA. In other countries, with real competence, most people will not be pushed to buy a high end phone (due to the apparent inexpensiveness and the “even if don’t get the phone I still have to pay almost the same to the carrier, so…”). Instead you can see the real price of each item, and pay according to your needs.

You actually can buy off-contract in the U.S., but you end up with a bad deal. Our cell phone service in general is also much more expensive than is cell phone service in Europe. The USA has the problem of being spread out. Costs to the cell companies are high, and you're usually stuck with only a few to choose from, so there is no real competition. $30/mo is considered cheap and will buy you only a little data here, and people gladly pay big bucks for cell phone service. There's no unlimited anymore unless you go on the slow Sprint network.

If anyone wants a laugh, it's $20 per megabyte to use AT&T data on the sea. Not kidding. If you're ever on a cruise, turn off your cellular data. Once some stupid app wants to contact Facebook...

That $30 gets me 5 GB of LTE, with unlimited EDGE afterwards; unlimited SMS; 100 minutes, with 10 cents a minute after those 100.

And the particular plan that he's referring to is at http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans under "$30 per month--Unlimited web and text with 100 minutes talk," if anybody happens to be interested. And just to clarify, the unlimited EDGE speeds still keep you connected to whatever's the fastest data network available, but raw speeds will be limited. LTE latency is good, so while max speeds will be dramatically slower, basic things can still be done at prior speeds, such as sending an iMessage.