If a new iPhone came out (which I am sure will happen in 2009/2010, what would the pricing be for us current customers? What happened when you all upgraded from a 2G to a 3G?
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If new iPhone came out, what would be the pricing?
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With the iPhone 3G we got stuck in a 2 Year contract and may not be able to buy a new iPhone unless we pay an additional fee. I doubt that they will prohibit or charge current 3G owners from upgrading to a new one. There has got to be a high percentage of iPhone buyers who went and bought an iPhone 3G, and Apple/AT&T would be stupid not to let me spend the couple hundred dollars for the latest and greatest.
If you are not eligible for a phone upgrade, you will pay the unsubsidized price which would be around $500/$600. I'm not really sure what it is, but it's a lot more than the $199/$299 prices.
Currently it is $200 more than the subsidized price. But, who knows what will change with the next round.
I like sergiuria's answer.
I wonder if AT&T will allow you to upgrade at the subsidized price as long as you agree to another 2-year contract that follows immediately after your current 2-year one ends (instead of just starting again at the purchase date going forward).
So for example, if you bought a 3G on Day One, and a new model comes out June '09 for a similar price, you can buy it at that price but your contract at that point will be 3 years instead of 1 year.
Kind of a drag to have such a long contract, but at least it would allow 3G customers to upgrade without paying the full cost, and AT&T would get all our money. Everyone (sorta) wins.
So for example, if you bought a 3G on Day One, and a new model comes out June '09 for a similar price, you can buy it at that price but your contract at that point will be 3 years instead of 1 year.
Kind of a drag to have such a long contract, but at least it would allow 3G customers to upgrade without paying the full cost, and AT&T would get all our money. Everyone (sorta) wins.
I've thought about this a lot since i wondered it myself. There are 2 options that are more than likely (im confident to say will happen). I just don't know which method it will be.
A) We pay full price for the iPhone like we did with the first one. If that is the case, $400 16GB, $500 32GB.
B) We pay the subsidized price. Keep in mind, everyone that has bought a 3G iPhone won't be able to upgrade as of AT&T's contract right now, but they could allow 3G users to upgrade that purchased the 3G before a certain point. If that is the case, we will see low prices, such as $200 16GB, $300 32GB.
I'm confident it is one of these, give or take $100 on each model.
A) We pay full price for the iPhone like we did with the first one. If that is the case, $400 16GB, $500 32GB.
B) We pay the subsidized price. Keep in mind, everyone that has bought a 3G iPhone won't be able to upgrade as of AT&T's contract right now, but they could allow 3G users to upgrade that purchased the 3G before a certain point. If that is the case, we will see low prices, such as $200 16GB, $300 32GB.
I'm confident it is one of these, give or take $100 on each model.
Option B) sounds likely to me as well, both are possibilities, but B) sounds much more likely.
Who knows what will happen. With the first iPhone there was no subsidy, so one was given with the 3g. If apple releases one every year, AT&T will either have to give one each year or deal with angry customers. Could be apples way out of the contract because AT&T probably doesn't want either of those happening.
But then what happens the following year and the one after that if the phone is upgraded every year? You could end up with a contract longer than your mortgage! I'm guessing you'd have to pay full price for a new phone - or just skip an upgrade.
In all this is a sticky situation for AT&T, like jason72780 said, if AT&T does not allow iPhone 3G customers to upgrade, they will have many pissed off customers (me). If they do - it may be a loss financially for them, although who knows what they need to keep a profit seeing as they raised the bill on the iPhone 3G, hopefully that will make the difference and allow us to upgrade.
Why would AT&T give special privileges to iPhone owners? If you buy any other phone, you have to wait until your contract is up to get a new phone at the subsidized price.
If they do something like this for the iPhone owners, they would have to do this for every other phone too.
$428.54 new, $219.64 to upgrade, not included tax.
Agreed. From what I understand, AT&T did a lot of somewhat shady things to attract those who didn't already have a contract to the iPhone, but were pretty hard (i.e. not willing to allow people to easily upgrade) on people trying to upgrade to the iPhone (at least in some cases), so chances are that those trying to upgrade from the 3G (in a few years, I might add) would not get a better deal.
I would doubt it. Then those who always want to upgrade will get themselves into contracts that don't expire for another five years or more.
If you're talking about allowing you to upgrade at the 2-year contract prices, they obviously aren't just like AT&T (or anybody else) won't let you do it on any other subsidized contract. You got a deal because you agreed to 48 months of service.
If you're talking about allowing you to upgrade at the $500ish prices, I'd agree. Allow people to pay that full price for a phone if they want. I'm still wondering if the phones would *really* retail at such prices, but I think some BlackBerry models are $300 WITH a contract.
Hopefully and likely it will be like it was for 2g iPhone users who upgraded to the 3G. You start a new contract as of that purchase date and you get the phone at a subsidized price. AT&T is not stupid enough to make current 3G owners wait till their contracts are up, especially considering the extra 35$ (or more) we pay per month for texting and data. It would be an unwise business move to piss off the "higher end" customers. I say higher end because we typically pay much more than people with "normal" cell phones.
But that would allow iPhone customers the ability to upgrade with each new model, when everyone else has to wait 2 years. There's alot more everyone elses to piss off than iPhone users. Could be after the 3g the iPhones will go to a new model every 2 year cycle. That would be the best solution for AT&T and with the exclusivity contract are the ones that matter right now.
Yeah, but in my opinion, AT&T should have to compromise rather than Apple because Apple can take their product elsewhere once their exclusivity contract is up. Plus, the ability to be able to upgrade with each new model may increase the number of iPhone buyers because I know a lot of people HATE having to wait the normal amount of time for other phones. And as eplchamps said, it's not like you have to upgrade to the new model. But in my opinion it is nice to have the option in the event that there is some compelling new feature that everyone wants.
I agree. My comment was in response to a suggestion that one could upgrade at the subsidised price every year by extending the contract.
I don't the carrier will allow an upgrade a year early. They'll say the price of the contract was calculated to offset the subsidy on the new phone. I don't think they care whether someone has the latest and greatest, they'll say you agreed to a two year contract when you signed up. It's a bit tough in those countries where you don't have the option to buy one without a contract though.
We don't even know at the moment that there'll be a new phone every year but if there is, I'm guessing you'd just have to pay full price for it. In the UK the contracts are 18 months so someone's going to have to wait!
