Apple makes Comcast, the charter subsidizes iPads as part of a mobile offering

Comcast and Charter have learned a hard lesson in developing their mobile offerings: it's the world of Apple and they live there.

As part of their agreement to transport the iPhone with their nascent mobile plans, Apple has forced the two largest cable companies in the US to sell a large number of other Apple devices, according to familiar people with the subject. (Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.)

Both Charter and Comcast offer wireless service under a virtual virtual network operator (MVNO) contract with Verizon, originally signed in 2012. Comcast, which started service in 2017, has approximately 1 5 million Xfinity mobile subscribers, and Charter, which began last September, had more than 300,000 on March 31st.

The cable companies decided they could not offer a viable mobile service that would allow them to compete with Verizon, AT & T, Sprint and T-Mobile without the iPhone, which would give Apple considerable leverage in the negotiations, the company said. population. Extracting the best deal from its partners is a clbadic activity, but it recalls the considerable strength of Apple over the entire telecommunications ecosystem, as federal regulators lay the groundwork for eventual antitrust proceedings against the biggest technology companies.

Although the exact details of the Comcast and Charter agreement are private, Comcast must sell a number of iPads, in the thousands, at a subsidized cost – Comcast paying for the difference between the discounted price and the retail prices, said people. The agreement allows Apple to sell more iPads, one of Apple's top concerns when the handset maker signed the deal with Comcast two years ago.

Comcast sells the 9th generation and 32GB 32nd generation cellular iPad priced at $ 422.99. Apple and Charter are selling the same device for $ 459.

Charter has a different deal with Apple because the second-largest US cable company allows its customers to use Apple TVs as a replacement for Charter legacy boxes. Comcast does not allow Apple TV to replace its Xfinity X1 enclosures. As a result, Charter does not have the same requirements for subsidized sales for iPad as Comcast.

Charter sells the Apple TV at $ 7.50 per month for 24 months – or $ 180, the retail price of an Apple TV. Alternatively, a customer can rent a Charter decoder for $ 7.50 per month. In other words, Charter offers an Apple TV at the same price as a decoder Charter, but a customer ends up owning the Apple TV and return the box.

Charter has become the biggest third-party vendor of Apple TVs because of this deal, two people said.

Mobile operators are taking advantage of the agreement with Apple. Mobile devices such as iPads and Apple Watches, which Comcast has also recently started selling, further enhance the value of Comcast's wireless service. And customers may prefer to navigate through an Apple TV to an older and more cumbersome Charter user interface.

Apple has long-standing relationships with more established operators in the US and around the world, and it's common for companies like AT & T and Verizon to sell a variety of Apple products in addition to the iPhone. Apple products are designed to work together in an ecosystem. So it makes sense that an iPhone buyer wants to buy other Apple products during the same transaction.

According to a study by Kantar, Apple holds more than 45% of the US smartphone market. Apple's iPad revenue growth began to slow in 2016 and to fall back on an annualized basis in the first two quarters of 2017, prompting Apple to push back the strong selling requirement of ################################################################################## 39, iPad on Comcast, said one of the people.

Apple declined to comment.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, CNBC's parent company.

WATCH: All that Apple announced during its speech at WWDC in 280 seconds.