iPhone 2,1 release strategy

[MacSimoPark]

In the UK, the iPhone was released on 9/11/07 (or 11/9 for US readers). If my maths is correct, then people will be updating to the iPhone 3G when their contracts approach termination (17 months). The earliest being 9/4/09.

So a lot of people will fork out £99 for the earliest opportunity to upgrade their handset. Some of them would have forked out within four months of the iPhone 3G release on July 11th, but I'm willing to bet at least half didn't.

But if a new model is on the way, shouldn't they wait for that? We know that the new iPhone will probably be released in June or July. At an estimate, probably half of those who upgrade will have wanted the iPhone 2,1 instead of the iPhone 3G. But rumours won't have hotted up enough by then for most people to know about the iPhone 2,1.

So this awkwardness in terms of contract expiry seems to be playing right into Apple's pockets. What I wonder is whether Apple will be responsible about this and advertise, or at least publicise in Europe early enough for people to wait a few months and get the latest handset. After all, it may well be more in their interests to keep their customers happy than to get a small number of people to fork out £99 for a 1 year old handset.

Anyway, I'm just thinking about this because I broke my iPhone, and am considering whether to wait for the new one or fork out in April.

 

[synagence]

Thats life ... tech upgrades quickly these days and mobile companies are making our contract minimum terms longer .... in the USA they have 2 years ... at least we only have 18 months ....

I for one will be getting iPhone "next" on the day it comes out via my wifes contract (she likes my iphone so she'll be getting a hand-me-down from me)

Last time around the mobile networks hadn't really subsidised the handset so they were happy to take the contract from the beginning again with the 3G ... this time around they won't be so generous....

 

[AnDi86]

i hope they do the uprgade thing again this time around!

 

[Auzburner]

I really hope they make an exception. It would be interesting to see the numbers on just how many iPhone users upgraded to a 3G. These numbers are what really helped the 3G be so successful, I'm thinking they may do something for the early adopters, but at the same time I feel foolish to think AT&T would allow any type of exception...

 

[Sebby]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

Me too. I haven't had my 3G long!

 

[ParishYoung]

It's in interesting point, which I was kind of thinking about just the other day.

I would love to get a 3G iPhone, but thought even to the point where I am considering changing networks to get (a bigger problem than would first appear) to get it.

However if I get one now then I doubt O2 will allow me an upgrade if the new one is released / announced this summer, so sadly I have to hold off for now.

I wouldn't expect an early announcement, but with Apple's newfound control over the rumor mill I would certainly expect a pretty solid rumor of some description (spy-shot for example) around the March / April time, to allow forum readers and the like to suggest people think twice about buying in anticipation of a newer model.

 

[Shoot]

the carphone warehouse told me i would be allowed to upgrade at any time but it'd extend my contract.

 

[Sebby]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

Don't believe everything they say.

 

[MacSimoPark]

However if I get one now then I doubt O2 will allow me an upgrade if the new one is released / announced this summer, so sadly I have to hold off for now.

Just to remind everyone, O2's policy when the 3G came out was to allow a mid-contract upgrade within the 4 months for £99 and a contract extension.

I was given to believe that the same thing would be true on contract expiration: it will cost £99 to upgrade.

 

[Sebby]

I'd be more than happy to do that, given that I could sell my 3G for more than I paid for it originally + the £99.