Obviously, nobody knows. I'll tell you one thing though, the longer we go without an answer, the better the chance of everyone receiving the identical price point at 199/299. My reasoning for that is simply that most people (we're not most people) who heard about the announcement are assuming that the price is what they heard the day the iphone was announced... "199/299."
There's no assumption involved. That is the price. It is available to
everyone signing a
new two-year agreement, just as it's always been. Getting out of your former agreement is a separate process, as does trying to upgrade your phone within your current agreement, which might involve paying a different price.
That does not mean that the $199 price is not available to you. It is. You can sign a new contract and get a new plan and get that price if you like. You're then stuck paying two bills for two phones, but it's an option.
It might be the best business decision.
That's incredibly short-sighted. How does losing a number of months of previously committed income, taking a $200 hit, and increasing relative service costs make a good business decision? If people simply add the data plan, that does not itself mean that AT&T is making more money in the end. In fact, given the huge cost of 3G deployment and the curiously low rate plans for 3G, it seems a clearly low-margin service. They make their money on voice plans and text packages, plus overages and roaming.
Buying people out of their current contracts makes the contract a wash or a loss for AT&T, and any good will or positive buzz it generates would be offset by the anger exhibited by non-iPhone customers who don't get the advantage.
All it takes is for a person to say, "Your CSRl on this date, told me I could upgrade for $199," and AT&T has their hands tied, and it's their own doing.
Fortunately, CSRs aren't legally permitted to authorize changes to your contract of this nature, and your contract says that no modifications are permitted, except in writing by authorized parties. So it's a non-issue. There wouldn't be any businesses left if they were at the mercy of the idiotic things said by first-tier hourlies.
Sold separately? Does that mean the price is not part of a 2 year agreement, not part of any upgrade eligibility plan? But simply you buy the phone at that set price you then have to buy the 2 year plan?
No, "sold separately" means that it's not included in the price. "Requires" means that you have to do the signup to get that price.
I again see no mention of eligibility or a different price depending on your status with ATT.
Because that's part of AT&T's terms, and you have to deal with them for that part.
Besides that leaked early memo, at Apple and even ATT site, they don't mention having to qualify for upgrade eligibility for the price.
They don't have to. It's part of your existing contract terms. It's also an obvious part of
being a cellular customer. Car commercials advertising a particular payment price don't mention that it's based on a preferential APR offered only to A-rated credit customers, and that your payment might be higher depending on your credit history and risk level.
But only not anyone is going to be allowed to sign up for 2 years.
"Anyone" has never been able to sign cellular agreements. You have to be 18, pass the credit check, and sometimes meet other requirements.
If you do all that here, you
can get the $199 price. But if you are an existing customer, you'll be stuck with your old contract and old payment as well. If you want to get out of that, you have to follow that contract's method to do so (i.e. pay the ETF, lose your rate plan, sign a brand-new commitment), or take advantage of an alternative offer advanced by AT&T (i.e. pay the as-yet-unannounced higher up-front cost for the phone, which releases you from your older contract automatically and restarts your two-year commitment).
