When Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGY +1.41%) T-Mobile agreed to carry the iPhone, it did so in a unique and particularly troubling way: without offering a subsidy.
To be fair, Apple (AAPL +0.30%) shares have taken a beating recently for any number of reasons. Analyst downgrades. Reports of tepid iPhone 5 demand in China. The company's failure to pay a special dividend. By comparison, the T-Mobile deal shouldn't mean much.
Yet investors seem to fear that AT&T (T +1.48%), Sprint Nextel (S +0.00%), and Verizon (VZ +3.05%) will follow T-Mobile in abandoning subsidies, leading to steep cuts in iPhone prices, lower margins, and (gulp) declining profits.
Are price cuts in the works? What about lower profits? Fool contributor Tim Beyers answers these questions and more in the following video.
