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iPhone 3GS Now Free with Contract

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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As predicted, Apple also kept the iPhone 3GS around to be a low end "free with contract" device on AT&T.

That means Apple is presently selling 3 generations of devices: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S. Having a free option will help Apple compete with many of the cheaper Android phones. The 3GS is the oldest iPhone to support iOS 5.

Article Link: iPhone 3GS Now Free with Contract
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/04/iphone-3gs-now-free-with-contract/
My 3GS kinda struggled with iOS 4 ... I think it's going to perform like a free phone on iOS 5.
 
r.j.s said:
My 3GS kinda struggled with iOS 4 ... I think it's going to perform like a free phone on iOS 5.
Click to expand...

Some people are willing to accept those things to have an iPhone. They still have access to the same apps, iOS 5 etc.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Well, in the very least people can't explain Android's popularity by saying "they give those phone away for free" anymore.
 
Free with what contract?

'Free with contract' is kind of meaningless. If you go for enough minutes, even the better phones may end up as 'free'.

I'm expecting the 4s 16G to be 'free' in the UK on the standard 24 month contracts.
 
firestarter said:
Free with what contract?

'Free with contract' is kind of meaningless. If you go for enough minutes, even the better phones may end up as 'free'.

I'm expecting the 4s 16G to be 'free' in the UK on the standard 24 month contracts.
Click to expand...

Really? We'll pay $200 for the 16gb iPhone 4s here in the USA for a 24 month contract.
 
r.j.s said:
My 3GS kinda struggled with iOS 4 ... I think it's going to perform like a free phone on iOS 5.
Click to expand...

This has not been my experience at all. My 3GS is still running iOS4 like a champ, and the word from the iOS5 beta is that the 3GS runs iOS5 just as well.
 
Apple will[hopefully] not make the same mistake again as they did with the 3G and iOS 4. I'm just interested to see how much of a stripped down iOS 5 upgrade the 3Gs will receive compared to the iP4 and iP4(s).
 
EiriasEmrys said:
Really? We'll pay $200 for the 16gb iPhone 4s here in the USA for a 24 month contract.
Click to expand...

chrmjenkins said:
They have better competition over there.
Click to expand...

Yeah the iPhone 4 has been available for free pretty much since launch over here, I would guess the same will happen with the 16GB 4S. Price fixing seems to be rife in the USA, maybe it will get better now you have more networks to choose from. In the UK iPhones are on Orange, Three, Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile & Tesco-Mobile. Even if the networks don't offer it free, the independents will (Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U etc etc along with the 100's of online contract sites).
 
NorCalLights said:
This has not been my experience at all. My 3GS is still running iOS4 like a champ, and the word from the iOS5 beta is that the 3GS runs iOS5 just as well.
Click to expand...

The original poster was confused.

The iPhone 3G is the one that runs like a dog under iOS 4.
 
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)

Good deal.
 
r.j.s said:
I was not confused ... my 3GS did not run well under the later versions of iOS 4.
Click to expand...

I ran iOS5 on my 3GS and I didn't have any issues with the OS or the apps. However, I lost that phone and am running iOS4 on a 3G and apps these days are not coded with the 3G in mind. I don't have any issues with the core iPhone apps, but ones like Facebook or Hanging with Friends are so slow they're semi-unusable.
 
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)

I'm surprised they didn't drop the price to $300 off contract. It's so old! And they still sell it for $375. I thought they wanted to attack the prepaid market? They'll have to do better than $375 to accomplish that.
 
It's always been possible to get iPhones for free here in New Zealand. Provided you sign up for an extremely expensive 24-month contract.

What I want to know is how much the 3GS will cost off contract. If it was $99 USD on contract and is now free, perhaps the off-contract price will be halved.
 
Now that the phone is two generations behind, AT&T should allow the 3GS on a prepaid plan.
 
accidental said:
It's always been possible to get iPhones for free here in New Zealand. Provided you sign up for an extremely expensive 24-month contract.
Click to expand...

I particularly like how Telecom's $800 credit is now more than the price of the 3GS :)

accidental said:
What I want to know is how much the 3GS will cost off contract. If it was $99 USD on contract and is now free, perhaps the off-contract price will be halved.
Click to expand...

$375 in the US, $599 here.
 
No sane person would buy a 2 year old phone to save $100-200 when they have to pay $70+ per month for 2 years to use it.
 
Whenever I see a picture of the 3gs, I wonder what Apple was thinking changing it to the ip4 design. 3gs=so sexy.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

KillerTree said:
No sane person would buy a 2 year old phone to save $100-200 when they have to pay $70+ per month for 2 years to use it.
Click to expand...

The 3GS is a perfect phone for a family plan addition. Kids and in laws will get this now. For 25 a month each I can get one plus 200 MB data plan. I'll be getting 1 for sure. Maybe 2. I am perfectly sane. You just aren't thinking outside of your own needs. ;)

Edit: spelling
 
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