iPhone Early Cancellation Fee $175

[slvrfrg]

Here's the thing - the 2 year agreement is a contract that you'll remain an at&t customer for 2 years. They could care less which phone you use. Normally the only reason you have to wait 2 years to get a new phone is because when your contract is up, you are eligible for the $200 subsidy toward a new phone. If you want to forgo that subsidy (or pick up a secondhand at&t or unlocked phone on ebay), you can change phones every week if you want to.

Is there any reason to think that the at&t store won't sell the iPhone without requiring on-the-spot activation? My guess is that they'll be happy to help activate it if you so choose, otherwise you'll be able to buy the phone, take it home and activate it there, just the same as buying it anywhere else. I'm pretty sure they don't want the nightmare of having to go through and activate the phones for the masses of people that will be lined up outside the stores, especially if there's an easy apple-ish way of activating it yourself, which there almost certainly is.

 

[Philsy]

The answer is that EVERYONE is going to pay full price for it.

Your question, I think, is "who is so concerned about getting an iPhone unactivated at the same price, apart from a few Apple zealots?"

And you're absolutely right: 99% of people don't care about all this garbage, and will just be getting an iPhone and activating it on AT&T.

No, I was wondering who would pay $500 for a phone on a two-year contract.

OK, it's hard for me because I don't know the US market. But as an example, in the UK I could get a Sony Ericsson M600i (HTML browser, email etc - so similar to the iPhone in spec if not in desirability) free on a 12-month contract for £25 a month with 150 mins of free talk time and 300 free texts included. I'm sure you can get similar deals there.

So, with that in mind, you'd have to be very keen, indeed, to pay $500 for a phone. I could perhaps understand it if you wanted a pay-as-you-go without a contract, but not with a contract.

Phil

 

[daveschroeder]

No, I was wondering who would pay $500 for a phone on a two-year contract.

OK, it's hard for me because I don't know the US market. But as an example, in the UK I could get a Sony Ericsson M600i (HTML browser, email etc - so similar to the iPhone in spec if not in desirability) free on a 12-month contract for £25 a month with 150 mins of free talk time and 300 free texts included. I'm sure you can get similar deals there.

So, with that in mind, you'd have to be very keen, indeed, to pay $500 for a phone. I could perhaps understand it if you wanted a pay-as-you-go without a contract, but not with a contract.

Phil

Ahh, I see what you're asking.

Well, there's no question that the iPhone is a niche, luxury product. But you could also ask who'd pay $500 for a video iPod? I think the comparisons to other phone prices are fine, but this really is a different product from a lot of existing phones.

Only time will tell, but I think that a lot of people will be surprised at the numbers of people who will buy these phones, and it won't just be the Apple zealots.

 

[Project]

So could I stick an AT&T Pay as you go SIM card in there, use their network but no contract?

 

[bytethese]

No, I was wondering who would pay $500 for a phone on a two-year contract.

Unfortunately, I will be paying $600, I want the 8GB model. This is the way it works here. Our phones and plans usually suck compared to other countries. Hell, I have 450min/month and 5000 weekend minutes and pay $39.99. CingulAT&T says this is their lowest voice plan. I now have 3,928 roll over minutes. The sad thing is, this is my 'home' phone too and I still can't use it to my monthly capacity.

So why pay for the iPhone? On the subway the other day (I live in NYC), I was listening to my iPod and reading Bash.org on my work issued Blackberry. I put my BB down so that I could send a text to a friend and reached in my pocket for my personal Motorola SLVR. I put my phone down for a second so that I could change the song I was listening to, then pick up phone, finishthe text, put it in my pocket, grab my BB again and finish reading. Holy PITA. If I had iPhone, all on one device, no need to fumble around.

Is it June 29th yet?

 

[wnurse]

This is certainly disappointing, but I think that once people start using the iPhone, they wouldn't want to break their contract unless there were serious service issues or something with at&t. I think the product will be considered just that good.

Maybe at some point they'll subsidize the thing? Maybe THAT is what they're hiding?

Why would you assume that?.. The iphone is cool but what if sprint started offering a million minutes for $10 bucks?. At the end of the day, a phone is a phone is a phone (to a lot of people, all they want to do is call somebody, not play music, etc). My palm can play music, i can buy music through sprint, i can watch video etc, i never do those things. I think my palm is cool but so what?.. i don't use the cool features.. if some other company offered a plan out of this world, i wouldn't miss my palm at all. I suspect if i was an iphone user and some other company offered the plan of the decade, i wouldn't miss my iphone (if i had to get rid of it to go to the other company). I've never in my life heard of people staying with a cell company because of a phone.. i suppose apple could change all that but it's kinda presumptous of you to assume that once people get the iphone, they wouldn't want to ever switch.
(if this was true, AT&T wouldn't do a termination fee.. i mean, if no one ever wants to quit, why have a termination fee?).

 

[daveschroeder]

So could I stick an AT&T Pay as you go SIM card in there, use their network but no contract?

IF there is a way to get iPhone unactivated, yes, probably. I only say probably because we've seen some word about things like only 64K AT&T SIMs, not 32K, will work, and it's also *possible*, no matter how unlikely, that the phone won't be usable until it goes through whatever iTunes activation process is in store for it.

But the short answer to your question is, yes, if the iPhone ends up being available without a contract, which appears will be the case at Apple stores and apple.com, yes, you can probably just pop in your pay as you go AT&T SIM with no problems.

 

[johnmcboston]

"Because they can..."

 

[Philsy]

Ahh, I see what you're asking.

Well, there's no question that the iPhone is a niche, luxury product. But you could also ask who'd pay $500 for a video iPod? I think the comparisons to other phone prices are fine, but this really is a different product from a lot of existing phones.

Only time will tell, but I think that a lot of people will be surprised at the numbers of people who will buy these phones, and it won't just be the Apple zealots.

Umm, I see your point. You're suggesting that people won't look at the iPhone like a normal mobile - which is essentially a disposable item these days (rightly or wrongly) - but rather as something special. A bit like comparing a video iPod to a SE Walkman phone. It's a heck of a gamble on Apple's part if that is the case. Especially if you're tied in to a two-year contract - the phone will be an antique by then!

I'll be interested to see what happens.

Personally, I think if the iPhone is sold like that in the UK it will remain a niche product, simply because of the competition from other phones, which are given away with contracts.

Phil

 

[MacTheSpoon]

Greedy bastards. I doubt I'd ever cancel my subscription, but still...

 

[wnurse]

Unfortunately, I will be paying $600, I want the 8GB model. This is the way it works here. Our phones and plans usually suck compared to other countries. Hell, I have 450min/month and 5000 weekend minutes and pay $39.99. CingulAT&T says this is their lowest voice plan. I now have 3,928 roll over minutes. The sad thing is, this is my 'home' phone too and I still can't use it to my monthly capacity.

So why pay for the iPhone? On the subway the other day (I live in NYC), I was listening to my iPod and reading Bash.org on my Blackberry. I put my BB down so that I could send a text to a friend and reached in my pocket for my SLVR. I put my phone down for a second so that I could change the song I was listening to, then pick up phone, finishthe text, put it in my pocket, grab my BB again and finish reading. Holy PITA. If I had iPhone, all on one device, no need to fumble around.

Is it June 29th yet?

Psst, got a secret for you.. bet you wouldn't be able to surf and talk!!.
Try it after the 29th.

 

[Project]

No, I was wondering who would pay $500 for a phone on a two-year contract.

OK, it's hard for me because I don't know the US market. But as an example, in the UK I could get a Sony Ericsson M600i (HTML browser, email etc - so similar to the iPhone in spec if not in desirability) free on a 12-month contract for £25 a month with 150 mins of free talk time and 300 free texts included. I'm sure you can get similar deals there.

So, with that in mind, you'd have to be very keen, indeed, to pay $500 for a phone. I could perhaps understand it if you wanted a pay-as-you-go without a contract, but not with a contract.

Phil

Dude, please. The M600 does not have a 3.5", 160 DPI multitouch screen. Or several gigabytes of flash memory. Or an accellerometer and ambient light sensor. It does HTML email. Whoopy doo.

 

[Philsy]

Unfortunately, I will be paying $600, I want the 8GB model. This is the way it works here. Our phones and plans usually suck compared to other countries. Hell, I have 450min/month and 5000 weekend minutes and pay $39.99. CingulAT&T says this is their lowest voice plan. I now have 3,928 roll over minutes. The sad thing is, this is my 'home' phone too and I still can't use it to my monthly capacity.
9th yet?

lol! ring a premium rate porn line in Australia and leave it talking to itself overnight

 

[Philsy]

Dude, please. The M600 does not have a 3.5", 160 DPI multitouch screen. Or several gigabytes of flash memory. Or an accellerometer and ambient light sensor. It does HTML email. Whoopy doo.

OK, perhaps not the best example, but the principle would be the same for other phones. (At least the M600i does MMS!).

 

[MarcelV]

People who buy this for $599 just for the ipod functions are .... well I won't say it.

First of all, you can buy the 4GB model for $499. Second, believe it or not, $499 was the price of the first iPod I bought. For all models till the end of 2003, the price was 399 or 499. So, now you have this perspective, can you stop calling names?

 

[gmanrique]

regarding Apple's cut

Has it been confirmed there is a cut for Apple? I know Apple reported the thing they are going to do with accounting, but I though it was to spread the income from selling the phone over a 24 months period, nothing to do with extra revenue form the contract (I could be wrong). Now, if the phone's price was really a little higher and Apple's cut is to make up for that, that would be different, still unlikely, and certainly will eliminate any hopes of iPhone without contrac/activation.

Anyway, if the actual planned selling price was $499 and $599 and additionally Apple is getting a cut from the monthly bill, that would be greedy, just like the record companies wanting a cut from every iPod sold, just like cell phone companies selling Data plans separetely from SMS or MMS, and selling ring tones (disabling the possibililty of using your own music), maybe locking phone features if you don't get their crappy data plans, etc. BTW, that is even worst (more expensive) here in Canada than in the US.

Okay, this is just typical cell phone b.s. Still, the voice/data plan rate remains the big question. And, below the radar is the REALLY big question, what is Apple's cut of the monthly bill.

 

[eastcoastsurfer]

This is typical cell phone provider greed. They have the right to do it, but what gets me is that people still pay it. Good thing that I'm finally starting to see cheap providers pop up. I was wondering how long the cell/sms gravy train would last...

 

[oscuh]

Why would you assume that?.. The iphone is cool but what if sprint started offering a million minutes for $10 bucks?. At the end of the day, a phone is a phone is a phone (to a lot of people, all they want to do is call somebody, not play music, etc) .... (if this was true, AT&T wouldn't do a termination fee.. i mean, if no one ever wants to quit, why have a termination fee?).

Why assume that? Because it's an Apple product, and Apple users (myself included) tend to be zealots about our iMacs, MBPs, iPods etc etc. Besides, it's DIFFERENT. People like different, especially us zealots.

Why have a termination fee? Because you'll have people who will buy the thing, hack it, etc etc (I don't need to rehash all those points.) Bottom line is, they've invested heavily on the product, the marketing, and they want to make sure they make some money beyond the $500 for the phone itself. Besides, if they didn't have a fee, you'd be asking why they did on the rest of their phones

 

[twoodcc]

i'm not really surprised. wish this wasn't true though

 

[californian]

Forgive my ignorance

What would happen if you bought an iphone from say an apple store and did not activate it. Then you took your sim card out of your currently active AT&T BB 8700 and put it in your new iphone. Would the iphone work?

 

[prodeucer]

I've been patiently waiting since September for the Apple to make something like the iPhone. My contract has been up with AT&T. I've been babying my phone hoping that i can squeeze another week out of it before it dies.

 

[joeconvert]

So in other words, this means $1000 unlocked iPhone on eBay for Europe.

Great...

FU Apple, you'd better subsidise it in the EU or get ready for zero sales.

Maybe they don't care. Figure sell 10 - 12 million in the US, get a refresh every 2.5 years == not worth the hassle of dealing with the Euro phone market.

 

[page3]

$675 for a touchscreen ipod!! !

Bargain, where can I sign up!

My iPod (2G 10Mb) was £320 which is about $640.

 

[bytethese]

What would happen if you bought an iphone from say an apple store and did not activate it. Then you took your sim card out of your currently active AT&T BB 8700 and put it in your new iphone. Would the iphone work?

I would think some funtions may work, namely the ability to make a call. Certainly the visual voicemail would not as it may require some backend configuration. Since we are unsure what the data/voice plans will be, it will tough to say that you can put your BB SIM into the iPhone and have it work properly for data. I wish they would announce this SOON tho!

 

[page3]

OK, it's hard for me because I don't know the US market. But as an example, in the UK I could get a Sony Ericsson M600i (HTML browser, email etc - so similar to the iPhone in spec if not in desirability) free on a 12-month contract for £25 a month with 150 mins of free talk time and 300 free texts included. I'm sure you can get similar deals there.

Yes, but have you tried using the M600i? Its my current phone and UIQ3 is clunky, to be polite. It also cost £400 (thats about $800) sim-free.