AT&T (via Macrumors) has posted the above video in hopes of clarifying how customers, new and existing, can get a brand new iPhone 3G S come next Friday:
On launch day (June 19th), two lines will form at 7 a.m. local time at the AT&T retail stores. Customers who had pre-ordered from retail stores will be able to pick up their iPhone 3GSs at that time, while customers who wish to purchase that day will have to wait until the store opens at normal business hours.
Pricing is still $199/$299 for 16GB/32GB on new activations with full subsidies. Customers already under contract, having already received subsidies last time around, can expect to pay up to $599/$699 (though some discounts might bring that down a tad).
So, does the video help answer your questions, if not allay your frustrations?
So, RIM has made their big App Store — sorry — App World announcement and the big news from over on CrackBerry.com is that it will have regulated pricing tiers. What does that mean?
Apple, who is often (and often rightly) accused of being near-fascist in the control they exercise on the App Store still lets developers charge what they want for an App, be it free, $0.99, $2.99, $9,99 or whatever. RIM on the other hand, has created a menu of prices from which developers have to choose. Most surprisingly — and upsettingly it seems to the CrackBerry Nation — is that after free, the next cheapest tier is $2.99. Yup, no $0.99 apps for the BlackBerry, fart fueled or otherwise.
So here’s the question: is that a Good Thing? Will forcing developers to choose between free and $2.99 make them put more work into making better apps to warrant the higher price point? Will it clear out the shoddy, quicky, apps that glut up Apple’s App store? Or will it mean all $0.99 apps just go free and take the ad-supported route?
If Apple decided turn about was fair play and iCloned RIMs apparent ban on $0.99 apps, would that make the App Store better or worse? Would it make you happy, or just [redacted] you off?
Take your $5+ apps and put them on sale for $0.99 for a week, and see if cheap really does make it up on volume, and what do you get? Aside from a lot of iPhone media attention, pretty much a wash according the AppCubby:
People seem to think that there is unlimited demand for iPhone apps, but that’s just not true. The time, attention, and discretionary income of iPhone and iPod Touch users ARE finite. They can only download and use so many apps in a single day. The published download numbers for the App Store are off the charts, but as I’ve pointed out before, those numbers are spread quite disproportionately among free apps and the top 50 paid apps. The harsh reality is that very few apps can “make it up on volume.”
The post goes on to describe some of those harsh realities in more detail, and shares the developers thoughts on whether or not he’ll keep with his current apps, or ditch it for high-volume, low-brow novelty CrApps. Definitely worth a read, especially by anyone who wants to see really innovative, really polished iPhone apps. Extra-especially by Apple.
Or is this just a bunch of crazy talk, and real iPhone users are happy with free/cheap iFartz! fun, premium apps be damed?
