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If I get the 4S now, will I be able to get the iPhone 5 when it comes out?

T

tianh

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 1, 2009
121
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Assuming that the 5 comes out in a year and I sign a two year contract for the 4S, what are the chances that ATT will push back the eligibility dates for 4S users to get the 5?

If I remember correctly ATT did this for the 4 right?



Thanks.
 
I doubt AT&T will pull in your eligibility by a whole year. When I upgraded from the 3G to the 4, I became eligible for the full discount price ($200) for the iPhone 4 18 months into my 2 year contract.
 
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Ahh I see, I coulda swore that ATT did this for 3GS owbers to get the new 4, or was I completely off?
 
It seems to depend on how much you spend a month with ATT and even that doesn't seem to be consistent I bought a 3GS on launch day and was eligible for a 4 on launch day and my plan is about $100/mo and hasn't changed in several years. However, I'm not eligible for a 4S until Nov 20th but my friend who spends $140+ for his plan also bought a 4 on launch day and was eligible for the 4S right away.

Steve
 
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well with my family plan I pay about 250 a month..
 
tianh said:
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Ahh I see, I coulda swore that ATT did this for 3GS owbers to get the new 4, or was I completely off?
Click to expand...

AT&T gave the discounted upgrade price for everyone that was eligible for an upgrade in 2010. They did this because Verizon was getting the iPhone in 2011. They wanted to lock in as many 2 year contracts as possible.
 
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Thedeathbear said:
tianh said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Ahh I see, I coulda swore that ATT did this for 3GS owbers to get the new 4, or was I completely off?
Click to expand...

AT&T gave the discounted upgrade price for everyone that was eligible for an upgrade in 2010. They did this because Verizon was getting the iPhone in 2011. They wanted to lock in as many 2 year contracts as possible.
Click to expand...

ohh i see. so no guarantees for the iphone 5 right.
 
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cursedearth said:
Of course you can. All you need is disposable income .
Click to expand...

haha i meant with doscounted upgrade pricing ;p
 
Just buy the 4S at full retail and sell it when the 5 comes out and buy the 5 at full retail. You'll have to put about $300'ish out of pocket.
 
mpossoff said:
Just buy the 4S at full retail and sell it when the 5 comes out and buy the 5 at full retail. You'll have to put about $300'ish out of pocket.
Click to expand...

If you but the 4S at full retail, you won't be extending your contract/using an upgrade right now so you could "save" that discount for the 5.

Then you can sell the 4S to recover most of the money. Especially if you buy the factory unlocked model which should be easier to sell (since its more flexible).

I can't envision too many scenarios under which you will get another discounted headset unless the iPhone 5 doesn't come out for like 16+ months when you will be eligible again.

If I was a betting man, I'd place my money on Apple not waiting this long again. My personal guess is iPhone 5 is coming in the spring (March/April) alongside iPad 3s.

The reason is that Apple doesn't want people to expect products at certain times (that creates demand drop off prior to the "expected" date and claims of "delays" when Apple decides not to release on the rumored/expected time).

The only way Apple can break the cycle is to start releasing iPhones on less predictable cycles. The first 4 were all Summer, this one is fall, maybe next one is spring just so that everyone breaks the idea that Summers = New iPhones.
 
tianh said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Assuming that the 5 comes out in a year and I sign a two year contract for the 4S, what are the chances that ATT will push back the eligibility dates for 4S users to get the 5?

If I remember correctly ATT did this for the 4 right?



Thanks.
Click to expand...
Sell your 4s in a yr and you'll prob get about 60-75% of what you paid for it. Use that to buy the 5. With any luck you'll get it less than you would on contract.

----------
Gregintosh said:
If I was a betting man, I'd place my money on Apple not waiting this long again. My personal guess is iPhone 5 is coming in the spring (March/April) alongside iPad 3s.

The reason is that Apple doesn't want people to expect products at certain times (that creates demand drop off prior to the "expected" date and claims of "delays" when Apple decides not to release on the rumored/expected time).

The only way Apple can break the cycle is to start releasing iPhones on less predictable cycles. The first 4 were all Summer, this one is fall, maybe next one is spring just so that everyone breaks the idea that Summers = New iPhones.
Click to expand...
. No way, I'm guessing they stick with the 1 yr refresh for the ip5. They didn't go 4 months past the typical refresh just to refresh again in 6 months.
 
Maybe when apple sort out things with samsung in the courts then an iPhone 5 will be the next step.

The iPhone 4s just was the next step from the 4 just like apple did with the iPhone 3g to 3gs.

The iPhone 5 concept was just whipped up by the rumour mill, chinese whispers and conspiracy theorists.

I wonder if Tim Cook did pose the question : should we do an iPhone 5 to not disappoint them !

Apple have always pressed forward with their own ideas no matter what market and consumer trend wanted !
 
First of all: assuming an iPhone is released next year, it would be the 6th iteration, so the iPhone 6.

Second, AT&T has given me upgrade for the past two years - I went from 3GS to 4 and 4 to 4S on full subsidy.

I can only assume the same should be true if a new iPhone is released. I think they do this for most early adopters... Apple doesn't want to lose us!
 
StvPtrsn said:
It seems to depend on how much you spend a month with ATT and even that doesn't seem to be consistent I bought a 3GS on launch day and was eligible for a 4 on launch day and my plan is about $100/mo and hasn't changed in several years. However, I'm not eligible for a 4S until Nov 20th but my friend who spends $140+ for his plan also bought a 4 on launch day and was eligible for the 4S right away.

Steve
Click to expand...

If you have a family plan, you also have to be listed as the primary person on the account. As long as you are the primary account holder and spend a high enough amount on your bill you should be eligible every year.

Based on your experience, I'm guessing the amount is now somewhere between $100 and $140...
 
aross99 said:
If you have a family plan, you also have to be listed as the primary person on the account. As long as you are the primary account holder and spend a high enough amount on your bill you should be eligible every year.

Based on your experience, I'm guessing the amount is now somewhere between $100 and $140...
Click to expand...

Yeah, my plan on it's own is about $100...then add my wife's plan to that to bring it up to $140ish.

Point being, AT&T can change it any time they want. If you signed a two year contract anything earlier is at AT&T's choice.

Steve
 
I'm not sure about anyone else... but I'm buying the 4S using my upgrade, and then next year when the 5/6 whatever it's called is launched (I'm waiting for LTE, not just redesign) I will buy that phone unlocked and sell my 4S to cover part of the cost. Then the next year I will be eligable again.

If you are going to buy 1 phone on contract, and 1 off, it makes more sense to use your discount now to restart the counter asap.
 
Amnesia87 said:
If you are going to buy 1 phone on contract, and 1 off, it makes more sense to use your discount now to restart the counter asap.
Click to expand...

Yes.

The other thing you can do is just bite the ETF. It should cost you something like an extra $200 or so to ETF your line and get a new subsidized phone. So for a total of $600 you get both the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 on a "3 year" contract.
 
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