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AT&T Seeing "Tremendous Demand" for Free iPhone 3GS
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Well in more than a few cases these idiotic Americans were lied to by their lender. Lets not be too hasty to call people idiots shall we?
Is depressing regarding the future of Western Civilization. The purchase price of a smart phone is such a trivial part of the overall expense. If our fellow citizens are unable to understand there is no reason to buy a "free" 3gs over a $99 iPhone 4....
Edit: Talk about an indictment of our teachers union driven educational system...
Edit: Talk about an indictment of our teachers union driven educational system...
Which of these is a better deal?
iPhone 3GS for $0 up front plus $40 + $15 = $55 x 24 = $1320
or
Not getting a new smartphone, maybe sticking with an old android smartphone for two years and continuing to pay 55 each month?
In the first scenario, the carrier is giving you a loss leader for $0 and the second scenario would have you pay the same each month but get nothing in return except for the service that you are paying for in either scenario.
We seem to have a lot of "geniuses" here that cannot do simple math.
If you really want to save money then don't get a smarphone and smarphone plan.
iPhone 3GS for $0 up front plus $40 + $15 = $55 x 24 = $1320
or
Not getting a new smartphone, maybe sticking with an old android smartphone for two years and continuing to pay 55 each month?
In the first scenario, the carrier is giving you a loss leader for $0 and the second scenario would have you pay the same each month but get nothing in return except for the service that you are paying for in either scenario.
We seem to have a lot of "geniuses" here that cannot do simple math.
If you really want to save money then don't get a smarphone and smarphone plan.
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if you think twice, it no brainer to get the $99 iPhone 4 (if you really worried about the $$$, let alone not worry about Andriod phones)
Personally I don't see this as such a stupid thing. If a person tries a 3GS and a 4/4S and decides that the 3GS is just fine why is that so wrong? Not everyone feels a need to have every little update that Apple/other phone manufacturers keep pushing every year.
I am still rocking the 1st generation iPhone and it still does what I need it to do. Would I like it faster? Yup. Would I like more memory? Yup. Would I like better battery-life? Yup(would have liked that from day one).
And I was all set to upgrade this year as I told myself I wouldn't upgrade until 64GB was available. Which now it is but over the 4 the 4S seems like it is really only a speedbump with Siri as a throw in.
So would the 3GS work for me? Yup. And for free it is tempting as I am already paying data. But I will probably just wait for the 5.
But there are many reasons people do what they do. If people are happy with what they have then that is really what matters.
As an aside though, I am sure Apple is very happy to have these legacy iPhones continue to sell. At this point the unit price for the 3GS must go continue to go down exponentially every quarter-million more they sell. It has definitely paid for itself.
I am still rocking the 1st generation iPhone and it still does what I need it to do. Would I like it faster? Yup. Would I like more memory? Yup. Would I like better battery-life? Yup(would have liked that from day one).
And I was all set to upgrade this year as I told myself I wouldn't upgrade until 64GB was available. Which now it is but over the 4 the 4S seems like it is really only a speedbump with Siri as a throw in.
So would the 3GS work for me? Yup. And for free it is tempting as I am already paying data. But I will probably just wait for the 5.
But there are many reasons people do what they do. If people are happy with what they have then that is really what matters.
As an aside though, I am sure Apple is very happy to have these legacy iPhones continue to sell. At this point the unit price for the 3GS must go continue to go down exponentially every quarter-million more they sell. It has definitely paid for itself.
It's testament to just how strong the synergy is between hardware+software on the iPhone. And really, it speaks to the overall strength of Apple's ecosystem.
If it was not $549 new, I would have considered one. My friends are trying to sell off their iPhone 4 16GBs in the ~$300 ballpark.
A coworker had an iPod Touch when we had to make a phone call. I made the off comment that I was glad that I had purchased my Android phone over just an iPod Touch. The GPS came in handy today as well. I just wish it would pick up a signal faster. It does outside in a park but it is much slower in my car. Once it is locked on it does not lose it though.
My point was, if you're going to spend $1600+ for the service, why not pay an extra $100-$200 for a newer, more capable phone.
Both of my parents, two people who I never thought would have iPhones. Got these just this week.
Which seems silly to me.
Free + $1680 over the two year contract for the cheapest voice+data plans.
Chip in an extra $100 or $200 to get a 4 or 4S.
But then most people never calculate how much that 2 year contract costs them for their 'free' phone.
You can get the 16GB iPhone 4S 'free' on a slightly cheaper 2 year contract in the UK.
My point is if you are concerned about the service cost too much then you should not sign up for the service in the first place.
I could afford the upfront costs so I did get an iPhone 4S as an upgrade from an iPhone 3GS (which I sold to a co-worker).
In exchange for a new contract, I get a subsidy on the hardware cost and I get service which I would be paying for regardless if I got it from a contract or outright purchase.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)
Not sure why people are being so incredulous about this.
Free is free. These people have monthly contracts already. They will be paying monthly regardless of the next phone they get.
Before they had to pay an extra $99 to get and iPhone, now they don't. The monthly fee is a constant.
arn
Not sure why people are being so incredulous about this.
Free is free. These people have monthly contracts already. They will be paying monthly regardless of the next phone they get.
Before they had to pay an extra $99 to get and iPhone, now they don't. The monthly fee is a constant.
arn
yep i agree with you. This is putting a great phone into hands that otherwise may have never had a chance at it. I dont know how many of you have tested out those free androids but they are sllllow with ****** screens and feel cheap.
Its too bad there is not a CDMA 3GS
Wow
Man you people are pretentious ******s.
Ever stop to think that maybe just maybe they were going to get a free phone, ANY free phone, and now that the 3gs is free they will get the APPLE free phone leading to more money for apple and more acceptance of apple products and more justification for your superiority complexes?
Man you people are pretentious ******s.
Ever stop to think that maybe just maybe they were going to get a free phone, ANY free phone, and now that the 3gs is free they will get the APPLE free phone leading to more money for apple and more acceptance of apple products and more justification for your superiority complexes?
Give me a damn break. The iPhone 3GS is 2.5 years old. And it just got a major update. That's unheard of, and extremely generous in this market. So no, demanding it gets the next update a year from now is stretching it- a lot. But I can already see the bitch-threads when it doesn't.
Also, I don't get your reasoning. So what, Apple needs to discontinue a product, then wait 2 years before releasing an update, so it doesn't 'obsolete' it? Thats a ridiculous, untenable scenario. It makes more sense to judge it by when the product was first released, not until when it was sold. Many android phones don't even get the updates released BEFORE the phone itself was released. I speak from experience.
And for those people blown away about why someone would buy a 3GS at this stage- My sister has a 3G, and I offered to gift her my iPhone4. She refused, saying 'mine is fine'. She is far from an idiot. For most non-techies, the differences arent as dramatic as we see them. She just doesn't care.
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Surprised how many idiots there are signing 2 year contracts to subsidize a 3GS.
If you can't afford an extra $100-200 when you're paying for a smartphone plan every month, you need to either wait a few months and save up money or get your priorities straight and not have a smartphone.
If you can't afford an extra $100-200 when you're paying for a smartphone plan every month, you need to either wait a few months and save up money or get your priorities straight and not have a smartphone.