iPhone 3G will require a new two-year contract on AT&T
An AT&T spokesperson just confirmed the following with Boing Boing Gadgets:
Current iPhone customers can upgrade to the 3G iPhone and pay $199 for the 8GB or $299 for the 16GB model. They will need a new two-year contract.
In addition:
Customers who purchased a 2.5G iPhone on or after May 27 and want to swap it out for a new iPhone will be able to do so without incurring an additional handset charge for the new device. (There will be a 10 percent re-stocking fee.) They will of course need to turn in their 2.5G iPhone.
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That's really nothing new. When I replaced my wife's lost iphone, I had to get a new 2-year contract or pay a huge markup for the phone.
Am I unique in the modern universe in caring a lot less about the bells and whistles of a cell phone than about how much the plan costs me to actually use?
I mean... The essential function for me is a phone that works with my preferred (ie, cheap) pay-per-use plan. It'd be nice if it was an organizer too, but since I want something more open and more efficient that currently pushes me toward the Palm-based phones. If you can pack the music player into the same box that's nice, but my idea of a barely adequate music player starts at a minimum of 20GB of storage for that function alone. I'm willing to carry more devices if they do their jobs well and the total cost of ownership AND operation is less... and there's actually something to be said for running these functions off separate batteries, so listening to music doesn't run down your phone and talking on the phone doesn't run down your prosthetic memory.
@technogeek that is why your handle isn't "averageuser" and why people are willing to pay for the extra convenience.
After May 27th? You mean after all the stores had run out of iPhones? That's pretty generous of them...
this thing appeares to have every kind of radio imaginable on it. does that mean i can buy my iphone in the states and use it while i visit my sister in italy?
So if you want to upgrade do you have to cancel your current plan and suffer the early termination fee on top of everything else?
Wow, generous of AT&T to offer an 'upgrade' of the current pricing for the phone, plus the current standard contract length for existing customers.
How is that an upgrade again?
In three months, the openness of other systems will crush the eyephones restrictions. They are pricing themselves out of the market. Too many restrictions. Gone are the days of one model per carrier. Open the system. Let us all be free. Yes, it has taken a year for other carriers to catch up. But that difference quoteitn will drastically shorten in the coming weeks/months. Open source/Open access will crush Apple if it does not wake up.
Oh, nuts. Well, I figured.
You don't have to cancel your current plan or pay ETF. You agree to a 2-year contract from the date of activation. I got my iPhone in the middle of a 2-year contract, and have had it about 6 months. When I get the iPhone 3G, I'll only be 'extending' the contract 7 months.
AT&T doesn't have a whole lot to do with the pricing. It's not subsidized and Apple sets it.
In fact, if you have any discounts through AT&T (corporate/government sponsorship, family plan, etc...) you'll lose them if you get the iPhone.
The 2-year contract requirement is just the terms for activating a new iPhone with AT&T.
I guess that is what you get when you let Clive Barker set up your sales plans.
I expect the barbed chains to spring out of the walls any time I enter an AT&T sales store these days.
The iPhone 3g is being subsidized by AT&T and this time will require in-store activation.
Might put a damper on all that unlocking, methinks.
I got my iPhone in the middle of a 2-year contract, and have had it about 6 months. When I get the iPhone 3G, I'll only be 'extending' the contract 7 months.
I think you'll find your contract gets replaced by a new 2 year one from the date you upgrade if i'm reading it right.
Oops, ignore my above comment, it was me who was reading the comment wrong!
Gad, #8. You sound like an imperial stormtrooper or something.