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

Fixed that for ya (clearer meaning now).
It'll be interesting to see if the "free" offer will increase the iPhone user-base...
 
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.

By this standard, a huge portion of the population is not "sane". But they still buy stuff. Lots. Note that the 2 year old 3GS, which wasn't free, outsold every single Android model last month. With the cost now even lower, what you call insanity should increase, really putting the screws to all the mid and low-end Andriod manufacturers.

The 4S is a fake maneuver. The 4S wasn't intended to increase Apple's market share. It's only just enough of a differentiation to segment the market and allow Apple to lower the price of both the i4 and 3GS. These lower prices are the real attack on market share.

The fanboys will groan is disappointment, but Apple will roll in Billions of earnings from this move.
 
Am I missing something with this talk of the 3GS being cheap?

The non-contract price in the UK is a colossal £319.

That's £150 more than the iPod Touch... for a 3G radio and a GPS chip.

Even on contract, the cheapest current deal is £20/month (with Three) over two years. £480 with some minimal call allowance and data (just 500Mb/month). Yeeeouch.

What gives? Can we expect a further 3GS price drop at any time?
 
Am I missing something with this talk of the 3GS being cheap?

The non-contract price in the UK is a colossal £319.

That's £150 more than the iPod Touch... for a 3G radio and a GPS chip.

Even on contract, the cheapest current deal is £20/month (with Three) over two years. £480 with some minimal call allowance and data (just 500Mb/month). Yeeeouch.

What gives? Can we expect a further 3GS price drop at any time?

iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 8GB will for holiday sales, you might still see the price drop over the Thanksgiving to Christmas time (at least that is the best retail sales time in USA).

I expect the prices to be dropped by third party retailers if not by ATT/Apple.
 
I too am amazed with the 3Gs and Apple's software engineers who know how to optimize iOS 5. My 3Gs feels faster with 5.0 GM than it did with iOS4...and this is a phone that is about 2.5 to 3 years old. Great work apple!
 
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.

Really? We'll pay $200 for the 16gb iPhone 4s here in the USA for a 24 month contract.

It's worse here in Canada you need to go into contract for 3-years to get the $199 price...
 
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