As many would have heard by now, the new Microsoft Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL flagship smartphones will be exclusive to AT&T, something that carriers such as T-Mobile aren’t too happy about. To clarify things, the folks at WinBeta reached out to Microsoft who has since issued a statement on the matter.
According to Microsoft, “We’re refocusing our channel strategy, narrowing it in the short-term and planning for broader operator availability long-term. While there was interest across the board from U.S. operators, currently we’ve made the decision to have AT&T carry the Lumia 950, and then sell both the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL unlocked through our own channel in Microsoft stores.”
However we suppose the good news we can take away from that is that you can always purchase the handset unlocked from Microsoft if you’d rather not buy it from AT&T. That being said, we suppose it is understandable why some users might be upset. While carrier subsidies are pretty much dead, carriers have since introduced installment plans.
This allows customers to purchase new handsets and pay it back over the course of the 12/24 months. However with AT&T pretty much hogging the new devices, this means that customers are limited in their options.
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