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Buy iPhone Now?

B

bornchilla

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 6, 2008
55
9
I am looking into buying an iPhone, however I am not sure, when to get it. I am from Europe and I was planning to buy it while I'm in the US. I would use it here for the following six month with an AT&T GoPhone Pick Your Plan and when I get back to Europe I wanted to unlock it and use it with my local carrier (and obviously end the AT&T contract).
My question is, if you guys think this is a good way to do it? Do you think there will be an iPhone 2 before September because I would kick myself if I would buy an iPhone 1 and they release version two for a similar price in a few months.

Thanks for any advice or help with this!

Regards
 
bornchilla said:
I am looking into buying an iPhone, however I am not sure, when to get it. I am from Europe and I was planning to buy it while I'm in the US. I would use it here for the following six month with an AT&T GoPhone Pick Your Plan and when I get back to Europe I wanted to unlock it and use it with my local carrier (and obviously end the AT&T contract).
My question is, if you guys think this is a good way to do it? Do you think there will be an iPhone 2 before September because I would kick myself if I would buy an iPhone 1 and they release version two for a similar price in a few months.

Thanks for any advice or help with this!

Regards
Click to expand...


Highly doubtful there will be another iPhone released probably until around the next school year (August/September)

If you happen to live in the Northeast area, try to find an att store selling refurbished 8GB iPhones for $250. Unlock it with ZiPhone (so very easy...takes longer to fill up a car/truck than to unlock it (yes it will void your warranty once it downgrades your BL from 4.6 to 3.9 (there is no way around this) But the upside is that you get a really affordable iPhone under no contract that you can take with you to Europe

Everyone's complaining about no having 3G and all that (yes it is important) but if you were to transport your USA iPhone to Europe, you can still use WiFi.

And the million dollar question is the USA 3G iPhone may not have the same 3G band as the European iPhone. So the US iPhone may have the 850/1900 3g band (maybe even the 1700 band) but if Apple decides to increase profits, they leave out the 2100 european 3G band.

So my advice is go out and get one. What's the worse that could happend? You still end up with a multimedia device with WiFi access.

September is 6 months into the future (cell phones change very quickly) It's like someone wanting to buy a new laptop but say should they wait until September. Only you can answer that question. If you do not need a cell phone, than wait. If you would like to enjoy the current iPhone for at least the next 5-6 months, than go ahead and get it.

Suppose the 3G iPhone comes out just around labor day, you'll get posts on this message board about waiting another year for 4G iPhones for LTE chips. The wish list goes on and on.
 
Do you know if they sell any refurbished iPhones in the Providence area? And why do they only sell them in the Northeast area?

As long as I am here in the US I won't need to unlock anyway so I would probably go with this GoPhone plan to have full advantage of the phone.

I think I'm going to get one especially if I can have one for $250. Do you know anything about guarantees on this?

Thanks for your help.
 
I was hoping for a 3G phone today, but it didn't happen. I bought one today and I *love* it already.

-Chris
 
Call your local att corp. stores (seems like you live in the northeast region....it's an IN-Corporate ATT store special and not available online......this offer is only for the northeast region (northeastern meaning from Washington DC all the way up to and including your area in R.I). Maybe it's a trial that they are running. I do not know why but take advantage of the deal since you are in the region. I know many who do not live in the Northeast who are dying to get this phone for $250.

Many should have them in stock (although I'm sure these 8GB iphones that sell for $250 will sell extremely quickly).

I have reason to believe they will sell very quickly for $250 because:

1. The $250 (8GB) $200 (4GB) refurbished deals were just (unadvertised) announced last Friday so many people did not know about them and it's slowly becoming common knowledge about my area (Wash DC).

2. Those that did know about it were waiting until yesterday's announcement. Some people held off on buying them because they thought there would be a price cut on the 8GB model or they thought there would be a upcoming 3G announcement.

If you combine #1 plus #2 I suspect there will be a run on these iPhones (especially for the hackers and resellers....because of bigger profit margins) Hacked iPhones go for $450 to $550 on ebay/craigslist

So with $250 refurbished prices, you are talking at least a $200 profit margin for these hackers.

I have brought 5 refurbished iPhones myself (from different stores), I have 4 ATT lines and only gave them my driver's ID each time and brought the phone home to hack it. I got them all for my family members. 2 for my tmobile family members and 2 for my sister/brother in law who have ATT but do not want to pay for the data service and one for my Mom because she thinks "it's cool"

I suspect they may do a credit check on you with your ATT Go plan but whatever you do, play it cool and say you will activate the phone when you get home and do not let them force you into a 2 year contract.

$250 for a refurbished Apple iPhone is a steal. The phones are "just like new" All 5 refurbished iPhones I had no scratches, had the plastic sticky film covering the glass. However, they do not come with a SIM card in the tray holder, although you can always ask for one for free at the store. They come in a att "high quality refubished orange/blue box", the apple charger, headphones, cables are all new.

Trust me, you will like the Apple iPhone if you can find one at this price.

You get the standard 1 year Apple Warranty. Also a 10% restocking apply if you decide to return it. Any problems with the phone, just take it to the Apple Store.

Again, it's an unbelievable deal, especially for those of us (me included) who originally paid $600 for our iPhones.
 
buy or wait?

OK - Last weekend I almost bought a 16 gig iPhone, but they were sold out. Then I convinced myself to wait for the 3G iPhone, since I live in the DC area where 3G has already been established by AT&T. I was kinda hoping there would be some talk of a new iPhone at the SDK release presentation, but alas He said "We're not here to talk about hardware." Ugh. So now I'm not sure what to do. Is it so crazy to think that there could be an iPhone2 at the same time the iPhone 2.0 firmware is released in June?

So...
1. Should I buy an iPhone now or should I wait?
2. If I buy one now, should I buy an 8 gig or 16 gig model? I already have an iPod Classic 80 gig which I'm gonna keep using.
3. If I were to buy an iPhone now and a new model comes out later this year, would I be able to switch my AT&T plan over to the new phone without penalty? What would I do with the old phone? Would it still work as a wireless device and an iPod without AT&T?

Help me out - I've been torturing myself tryin to decide what to do...
 
BUY IT NOW.

If you want the latest, hippest, techno-gadget you need to pony up and buy it now. The longer you wait, the longer you go without being cool. :D
 
I already have one (8GB) and would really like more space, but I'm determined to wait until a 3G model surfaces... hopefully this will be later this year because I think I'm really going to need more space with the potential of the 3rd party apps and my ever-growing iTunes library.
 
update...

Seriously though, do you guys think that us, iphone current users, will have to spend on a new phone to get the 3G? do you think apple will offer some sort of upgrade, software, chip, whatnot? what about people that just got the 16gb one, say last night? (not my case BTW I got my 8gb as a b-d present in january) are they screwed?:confused:
 
Aureliano said:
Seriously though, do you guys think that us, iphone current users, will have to spend on a new phone to get the 3G? do you think apple will offer some sort of upgrade, software, chip, whatnot? what about people that just got the 16gb one, say last night? (not my case BTW I got my 8gb as a b-d present in january) are they screwed?:confused:
Click to expand...


Yes.
If you don't know that this is the way Apple works with upgrades, then, well, there ya go.

People will get screwed out of things. There won't be an exchange program. They want your money, they're a profitable company. Therefore, you'd essentially have to buy one brand new (after selling your current on craigslist/ebay/etc). That's the way it's always been, Apple doesn't care.
 
cupofjoe said:
Yes.
If you don't know that this is the way Apple works with upgrades, then, well, there ya go.

People will get screwed out of things. There won't be an exchange program. They want your money, they're a profitable company. Therefore, you'd essentially have to buy one brand new (after selling your current on craigslist/ebay/etc). That's the way it's always been, Apple doesn't care.
Click to expand...

that is pretty Fd up. I read rumors of an firmware update through itunes... but that would imply that the phones have already installed the hardaware... I don't know.
But is 3G that big of an improvement? do you guys think that EDGE will get a boost in speed as well given some time?
 
I was gonna buy an iPhone about 2 weeks ago, when I noticed a big advertisement offensive here in the UK all of a sudden.
There were barely a few ads on tv and in the press before this(that I was aware of), since it's UK launch, but this recent offensive, lead me to believe that Apple are trying to flog the existing 1st gen model to death, then suddenly announce the 2nd gen model, in the year's 3rd quarter.
 
Aureliano said:
that is pretty Fd up. I read rumors of an firmware update through itunes... but that would imply that the phones have already installed the hardaware... I don't know.
But is 3G that big of an improvement? do you guys think that EDGE will get a boost in speed as well given some time?
Click to expand...


No, the hardware is not there.
Yeah, it's effed up, but that's business, boyo.
 
I just can't help thinking the 'random' june date for the 2.0 update is just too much of a conincidence being very much the time the best information shows we could be seeing the 3G iphone. Also the fact that Steve said the AppStore could be used over Wi-Fi and over the network, seeing as they didnt allow the downloading of songs over the network and are allowing applications, surely theyre thinking about it in terms of a faster service i.e. 3G?
So for now, seeing as nothing new will come out until June in terms of updates to the software, I'll wait and in June if there's no hint at the 3G iphone ill go get one with the 2.0 update and use all those sure to be great apps!
 
aneftp said:
Call your local att corp. stores (seems like you live in the northeast region....it's an IN-Corporate ATT store special and not available online......this offer is only for the northeast region (northeastern meaning from Washington DC all the way up to and including your area in R.I).....

.....Again, it's an unbelievable deal, especially for those of us (me included) who originally paid $600 for our iPhones.
Click to expand...

I would buy one of these today if they were available in my area, I even called around just to make sure that they didn't get any. :(
 
aneftp said:
play it cool and say you will activate the phone when you get home and do not let them force you into a 2 year contract.
Click to expand...

Okay hence they have the refurbished phones in stock and I buy one for $250 and do not get a gophone plan. I could just activate it with ziphone and pick any carrier here in the US i like? Is there any carrier you can recommend so I can use internet and phone (preferably for a cheaper price then a gophone package). And if I unlock it and the refurbished phone brakes after a week (which is more likely to happen then a brand new one) I cannot return it because I have unlocked it and downgraded the BL right?

Apart from that the refurbished iphone thing sounds like a great deal for me and I think I'm gonna get one if they have them!

Thanks for your help again!!
 
bornchilla said:
Okay hence they have the refurbished phones in stock and I buy one for $250 and do not get a gophone plan. I could just activate it with ziphone and pick any carrier here in the US i like? Is there any carrier you can recommend so I can use internet and phone (preferably for a cheaper price then a gophone package). And if I unlock it and the refurbished phone brakes after a week (which is more likely to happen then a brand new one) I cannot return it because I have unlocked it and downgraded the BL right?

Apart from that the refurbished iphone thing sounds like a great deal for me and I think I'm gonna get one if they have them!

Thanks for your help again!!
Click to expand...

Who says you need a data plan at all if you have access to wifi most of the time. Call ATT or Tmobile and have your data disabled. I would do a jailbreak and fake activation (search macrumors or howard forums for instructions) because if you use the current ZiPhone unlock method (version 2.5, it will downgrade your BL and you cannot reupgrade the BL (to my knowledge)

Refurbished iPhones are great. I got 5 of them and all of them seem to work fine. They come with the same warranty was new iPhones.

Go ahead, it's a great price to get an iphone.

Go
 
aneftp said:
Call ATT or Tmobile and have your data disabled. I would do a jailbreak and fake activation (search macrumors or howard forums for instructions) because if you use the current ZiPhone unlock method (version 2.5, it will downgrade your BL and you cannot reupgrade the BL (to my knowledge)
Click to expand...

Okay, so you wouldn't recommend using ZiPhone at all? I thought that was so far the most advanced unlocking/jailbraking method.
My plan was to get the iPhone, unlock with ZiPhone and then get some sort of prepaid with dataplan or (if this exists) a 6 months contract to use here in the US.
Pan B would be to not unlock the phone for the first 6 months, get GoPhone and unlock it when I'm in Europe (cause that I have to do anyway when I move back).

BTW: I will get a refurbished one I'm just confused if I should unlock right away, and which carrier would be a good choice... Sometimes there is a carrier lot of people can recommend using with the iPhone (apart from AT&T)
 
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