When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that "there's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share," no one would have imagined that Redmond-based compay would lend a hand one day --like now.
File this one under “irony”‘ Microsoft’s is providing an incentive to purchase Apple’s iPhone though its Bing marketing campaign. In an attempt to entice users to try its Bing search engine, the company is offering 35% discount for AT&T’s online store, which sells iPhones.
[via Technologizer]
You know what would be decent reporting? Providing your readers with a LINK! Do you guys know WHERE we can get this supposed discount or did you read about it on some other newsworthy site?
just go to bing and search for “AT&T Wireless” — a link for the discount will appear
boys: sorry for that, but there is no particular link for this, just search “ATT Wireless” on the Bing website (as kbrian advised) and find the AT&T sponsored link there.
the Bing cashback FAQs states that it cannot be used with any other discount. Does anyone know if a subsidy is considered a “discount.” I assume it probably is. There doesn’t seem to be a way to confirm the cashback BEFORE you buy!
Lots of fine print… You should be receiving your discount in approximately 12 months, if you follow all the rules: http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=tou&querytype=topic&query=TOU_CONC_WLSearchCashback.htm
Does this work with an iPhone purchase as hinted at here? Has anybody made it work and gotten the cashback? Anybody?
I can almost guarantee this does not apply to the purchase of an iPhone. Every discount that ATT or any other company provides clearly states it is not applicable to the iPhone. I think this article is EXTREMELY misleading.
fbn: my company gives an equipment discount, so i’m experienced with this question. subsidy is considered a discount and typically the price of a “2 year contract” phone is way cheaper than any discount.
The following link explains it with some detail
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1356984/how-microsoft-pay-iphone
June 24 Update: I followed Jack Hanson’s advice yesterday morning…its been 24 hours and my $499 iPhone purchase from the Bing-connected ATT link has–at this moment–not shown up in my Bing account yet. They say it can take a few days…I’m still hopeful.
Curious Note: The “Bing Cashback Att Wireless” link button I used yesterday on the Bing Cashback Shopping site is not there today. (A sign I find encouraging.) Did they plug the leak?
I’ll let you 7 readers of this post know what happens tomorrow.
I cannot see the bing 35% cash back link.
Does any one knows if it is still functional?
The Bing cashback deal through AT&T is no longer in effect. However, when it was active it was valid for the iPhone. It often takes a couple of days for your cashback to show up in your Bing cashback account because the information must be relayed from the retailer to Microsoft. The Bing cashback that you earn will be made available to you within 60 days of it posting to your bing cashback account.
Right now there are still tons of great deals with Bing cashback. To learn more about Bing cashback and how it works, follow this link: http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2009/06/26/bing-cashback-101.aspx
-Nate
A member of the Bing Outreach Team
Unfortunately for many customers they have not been reliable in honoring the cashback requests. Please read more about this at http://digg.com/d1wcdx – When presented with the screenshots and evidence from customers at this Get Satisfaction link, the initial response from Bing Cashback has been to stay silent. With only a few customers posting there so far, this is a good strategy for them if they expect this to go unnoticed. Negative experiences please post your Bing Cashback ticket number so they can help you if they so choose. Positive experiences please post so that it can be documented they have already honored this in some cases, and should do the same for the rest of us. By posting your experiences, you help to hold them to what was advertised and remind them to deal with you in an honest manner in the future. Thank you for your help with this.