Because it doesn't save you any money...you're essentially paying more for a phone that you don't really own (since you have to give it back the "NEXT" (lol) time you upgrade, and you're basically just paying a ridiculous lease rate to AT&T. It's kind of humorous honestly, reminds me of those payday loan places in terms of the ethics of the program (towards the consumer).
SeanHRCC: It may not save you any money, but it may not cost you any [more] money either. With Next/Edge you can still buy in full and re-sell the phone - its a matter of how you want to distribute the full retail price.
Some assumptions:
--You want newest iThing every year
--You want to avoid contract lock
--For this example, new iP 6+, 128B, full retail $945.
1) Buy new phone outright, pay full retail. Use as desired, upgrade as desired, sell older phone at time of upgrade, assume 1 year later per iRelease cycle.
For new one, spend $945 up front; sell for ~ $450 next year when new one comes out. Your net outlay for Phone 1 is $505 or $42/month (whatever you don't recoup for selling it). Buy NEW phone at release, pay full retail again. Rinse, repeat.
2) Buy new phone under Next/Edge. Pay monthly rate, use as desired, upgrade as desired, assume 1 year later per iRelease cycle.
At time of upgrade, pay balance due ($386) keep old phone; sell it for ~$450 ($64 more than you spent to pay it off). Net outlay for one year of use $564-$68=$496 ($41/month).
Either way, you pay tax on full retail price up front. Either way, your net outlay is pretty much equal. Difference is how you splash it out. To buy up front just means larger outlays, less often. Edge-ing means smaller outlays, more often, equivalent net cost for one year of use. Either way, to have a new device each year, your net cost is always going to be about $500. Perpetually (because it starts all over with the next new device).
3) Edge the same device as above. Pay monthly rate for one year. At next release, Edge-up, turn in original; start a new Edge; monthly fee whatever it is.
If you can sell device for a lot more than that after one year, yeah - you're ahead with buying in full with 1 or 2. If you can't -- *or you don't want to* deal with selling, you turn in, get new iThing, start over, pay by the month.
For consumers, its all about the same. If you want to have the latest iThing every year, contract free, you're going to "pay" about $50/month, every month, (at current prices) to have the newest top of the line, max GB iThing in your pocket.
It's all kind of a wash really. If you want the new one each year and you get some joy out of buying/reselling, etc - a couple of ways to do that now. If you get NO joy whatsoever from re-selling, there's now a way you can have new iThing each year at nearly the same net 12-month cost - you never have to splash out full retail, and you never have to re-sell.
Next/Edge is still for vendors - b/c they can make out by getting old phones back for refurbs, parts, whatever. As consumers, unless you're a re-sale WHIZ, there's a somewhat fixed net monthly cost just to have a new iThing in your pocket. Next/Edge will seldom be a *better* deal, just a different one. Having paid full retail for three iPads and two of three iPhones, I appreciate the new options.