Live in the USA and want an iPhone 3G? Better get up early! We already told you how AT&T stores would be opening up at 8am sharp, and now Apple Stores will be following their lead. (And if you’re in NYC and want to get it at the giant glass cube flagship, the line-up has already started, so hurry up and get your spot behind the hippies!)
As to what you’ll pay for an iPhone 3G, we’ve already covered how taking the contract price and then canceling may well be cheaper than trying to buy it unsubsidized, but now there’s word that even if you don’t qualify for the new or upgrade price, there may just be some dirty tricks a way around it (provided you don’t mind playing fast and loose with the rules, and have a friend with an iPhone SIM card and the will to let you active with it…)
Either way, make sure you’re iReady, figure out what you’re going to do with your old iPhone 2G, and get ready for Friday!
AT&T has apparently been watching Roger’s desperate, retreat-action PR spin and thinking, “Yeah, let’s not do that.” So instead they’ve done something typical and something a little surprising. The typical thing: they’ve issued a press release with some crunchy details, including:
- Price for those ineligible to upgrade: $399 for the 8GB and $499 for the 16GB — these still require a 2 year agreement
- (Edit: whoops, misread the press release) — no-contract iPhone 3Gs will eventually be available at $599 and $699
- Minute Plans and FamilyTalk Details
- $18 upgrade fee (?!!?! Is this new?)
- Text options on top of your $30 data plan: $20 for unlimited, $15 for 1500, $5 for 200
- iPhone 2.0 software will be pre-loaded on iPhone 3G
- One more: Confirmed that they’ll start selling at 8am local time.
It’s a far cry from the simplicity of the original iPhone plan, but hey, at least we know now. AT&T apparently anticipated possible outcry, confusion, and panic, too. So here’s the nonstandard part: they’re released a series of videos on YouTube (first one is above) detailing what you need to do to be “iReady.” In addition to the above, there’s details on how to “make your original iPhone a hand-me-down” and how to “switch to AT&T for the iPhone 3G“
Alright, we have to Wait-a-Thon this. What do you think of the un-contracted prices? What do you think of the “upgrade fee?” Plans? Anybody else need a Xanax? Comment for your chance to win one of the last $100 iTunes Gift Cards we’re giving away.
Last year Apple Stores and AT&T owned retail outlets closed early, handed out water to the throngs of people lined up around their blocks, and then re-opened at 6pm local time to dispense the first generation iPhone to screams, cheers, and web-wide coverage.
This year, it looks like we’ll all have to come just a little bit earlier:
We just got a tip that AT&T store managers received emails stating that the iPhone launch would be at 8:00 AM
More, as they say, as this develops…
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AT&T customer? iPhone user? Eligible for an upgrade to the brand-spanking new iPhone 3G?
Yeah, we have no idea either, but in an unexpected and appreciated step towards being slightly less confusing than usual, AT&T has gone and created some website goodness to help everyone find out in three easy steps:
Login to http://www.attwireless.com/
Click on Phone/Device
Click on Upgrade iPhone
(We’ll leave out Step 4, hold your breath and pray the stars are aligned just so… for now).
If this works for you, please let us know!
(If not, let us know how you’re doing saving up for the rumored $600 unsubsidized, non-upgrade price…)
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The original iPhone 8GB launched with a hefty $599 price tag, though it dropped to $399 a short time later. Though contract details were never disclosed, some pundits and analysts have estimated that AT&T paid Apple up to $15 per month, per customer, in revenue sharing. Over the life of a 24 month contract that would be an additional $360 for a grand total of $959 (later $759) per iPhone!
As both Casey and I have discussed before, the new iPhone 3G 8GB dropped at a super-reduced price of $199, and while again no contract details have been released, it’s universally believed to be carrier subsidized up front.
So, rather than a little bit of money each month for 2 years, Apple is now getting a big chunk right away. How much? The estimates are starting to come in:
[Oppenheimer equity research analyst Yair] Reiner said he also believes that AT&T is paying Apple an extra $100 for each new subscriber to AT&T signed up through Apple’s brick-and-mortar stores, for a total commission of $425. That data point alone suggests that the analyst believes AT&T is also paying Apple the $325 subsidy on phones Apple sells.
If accurate, the iPhone 3G would give Apple a total of $524 per unit if AT&T sells it, and $624 if Apple sells it themselves. Not as much as before, but since its all up front, and economies of scale means they might be producing them at a lower cost (in greater volumes), not to mention the HUGE upside of putting market share ahead of profit, it could still be worth far more to Apple than the previous deal.
Though not the business model some of us expected, it seems Apple is serious in gunning for those low sticker-shock sales.
It should be noted, however, that not everyone is jumping on the $325 number. Scott Bourne argues:
[T]he early termination fee for the iPhone is $175. If the subsidy were $325 - that would be the early termination fee.
The status of the TomTom GPS app may still be up in the air, but we’ll still have Google Maps for turn-by-turn directions (albeit not in 3D and without voice prompts). Looks like we may to have another option, too, an AT&T-Branded “gps enabled application.” So says an AT&T insider who adds that in addition to the GPS app, AT&T is also developing a “yellowpages.com mobile” app as well.
Good news? We hope so — because our fear is that the Apple SDK user agreement prohibiting developers from creating turn-by-turn apps means that this AT&T GPS app will be our only option, an option that could potentially include a monthly fee — our worst fear.
As though the increased monthly fees on the iPhone 3G weren’t bad enough already. Say it ain’t so, AT&T!
While confusion still looms over who is eligible and at what price for iPhone 3G upgrades, never mind how high the unsubsidized price will eventually soar, AT&T may have clarified what families have to look forward to:
Family Talk plans ARE available. Voice plans start at $39.99 a month (same as the regular one-line starting plan) and additional lines will be $9.99 a month. AT&T’s expecting lots of Family Talk Plans this time around because of the $199 price point.
Makes sense. But howsabouta family data? $30 a pop still per phone?
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So you might have heard that the iPhone 3G was going to retail for $199 from AT&T. I’ve already covered how it isn’t technically $199 for current iPhone users. And you heard Rene tell you that $199 is less than the notorious price DROP of the iPhone. Well TiPb has been wondering how Apple settled on dropping the price so dramatically.
And we settled on a story, kind of—more like a collection of reasons. We’ve analyzed the outcome back and forth, from reverse and from the beginning. And we think we have come to a conclusion (or at the very least, a conspiracy theory). In a purely speculative story, I’ll give you my opinion on how we reached $199.
Read on for Apple’s Path to $199
Read the rest of this entry »
Hot on the heels of O2 in the UK offering FREE iPhones, and T-Mobile in Germany offering ONE Euro-buck iPhones, AT&T waddles up to the plate to remind these upstart old-worlders how a carrier is supposed to behave:
The company is treating the iPhone 3G pretty much just like any other phone in that people who are ineligible for upgrades have to pay the full, unsubsidized price for the phone. [...] AT&T hasn’t specified what the unsubsidized price is.
Based on European conversions, however, let’s expect that to push $700+
How do you know if you’re eligible? AT&T continues to rock it old-school with nigh-impenetrable explanations.
UPDATE:
Anthony sent us in a note about his conversation with an AT&T rep who confirmed/added the following: Eligible upgrades get you the sweetheart deal within your existing contract, if not you may get the price, but with contract extension.
Hey AT&T, murky much? How about just posting a nice, clear, concise breakdown of the process per subscriber situation? Not Telco enough?
Check out the read link for the deets.
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It’s official, folks, the iPhone 3G is replacing the original iPhone, aka the “iPhone 2G” (which makes the iPhone 1G the… Newton?). Company-owned AT&T store managers received the word today:
Stop selling and Pull all 2G 8GB (sku:69001) and 16GB (sku 69010) iPhones from the shelves and immediately return to AT&T Returns Facility in Fort Worth Texas
Have devices ready for pick up June 13th or Monday June 16th.
…Which means this past week wasn’t just a crazy dream after all, the iPhone 3G is really coming. What’s more interesting: we’re going to have a full month of NO iPhone sales. What’s most interesting: What do you suppose AT&T and Apple are going to do with these returned 1st-gen iPhones?
Heck - let’s have some fun. This is a Wait-a-Thon post. Any comment here gets you entered to win that $100 iTunes gift card. Here’s our guess: those long-lost, landfilled “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial” Atari Games create a sort of blackhole of bad user experiences. Throwing a bunch of iPhones in there would sort of balance that out, no?
What do you think they should do with them?
Thanks to Bla1ze for the tip!
