iPhone in Apple Stores

[chatster18]

Why would you purchase from Verizon out of curiosity? It's CDMA network. Verizon phones limit their users with phone fuctions. For instance, they program their phones to not be able to connect with other phones via bluetooth. And they have that red menu that is gross. Apple would never let any operator change their OS style (unless of course, Verizon makes an exception, like Windows Mobiles and Palms).

Just a guess, but I bet that that is one of the reasons that apple broke off negotiations with Verizon, too limiting of thier phones.

 

[iZac]

I think that's what he meant. The purchase in the Apple store is no hassle...but you'll hassle with Cingular on your own time to activate it. I presume this also means you can drop in a Cingular SIM and use it on your existing line.

It goes along with the "no subsidy" rumors we heard before...that is $600 is the retail price, not the subsidized price. So there's no reason you can't buy it without signing a contract?

Exactly what I'm thinking / hoping 😉

EDIT: It also might suggest that those more thrifty members of society can put a "pre-paid" or "pay as you go" Cingular SIM in it ( I'm not sure if such things exist in the USA) That would make for a much more flexible iPhone experience.

 

[valkat]

locked into a contract

I love to merge my phone, pda and ipod in to one unit, Iphone seem to be the answer. Price is not going to be an issue with me since I am locked in with Verizon for 18 more months. I'll have to wait😡 good new is, at the rate cell phones drop in price I'll be paying a hell of a lot less:😛

cheers
valkat

 

[deasine]

I love to merge my phone, pda and ipod in to one unit, Iphone seem to be the answer. Price is not going to be an issue with me since I am locked in with Verizon for 18 more months. I'll have to wait😡 good new is, at the rate cell phones drop in price I'll be paying a hell of a lot less:😛

cheers
valkat

I just don't like Verizon or any CDMA service. You will always be locked into their service. If you get a GSM plan, try to only get one year ones. And when your plan is up, don't upgrade it. Instead, buy another phone ONLY PRICE not the PLAN PRICES. That way, if you want to change your phone, you can do so easily. Tricks of the trade my friends.

I had a Sony Ericsson T610 for three years (though my plan was two years) and then I changed my phone to a Sony Ericsson Z610i (bought it phone-only price from Hong Kong). Now if I want to get my iPhone (if it's ever unlocked), I can do so easily without upgrading my plan. The only bad thing to that is that it's more expensive.

Hey, luxury comes with a price right?

 

[psycoswimmer]

As it's been said before on this topic, I think that the Apple Store will have specially trained salespeople to sell it, or Cingular representatives right in the store. I can't imagine (well yes, I just did, but anyway) an orange Cingular booth in the middle of an Apple Store.

 

[chatster18]

... an orange Cingular booth in the middle of an Apple Store.

EWWW!! 😱

That would really take the appeal out of going to the apple store...

 

[rainmanbk]

Well first of all, it won't be an orange booth, it will be an 'AT&T blue' booth.

But seriously, we all know Apple would never agree to that. Apple will simply have certain employees from each store pass whatever training course a standard AT&T store worker has to pass, and they will be given access to the software, connections needed to set up the iPhone in the store. You will buy the iPhone, and then walk over to the 'Activation Bar' or whatever they'll call it, and there will be 1 or 2 people there to instantly assist and activate your new phone with contract.
I'm making a guess here, but the reason it takes so long in regular cellphone stores is because the process is different for every phone? Possibly, the process could be streamlined because there will only be one phone and the activation will be the same everytime? I can see maybe just filling out a quick sheet of your information, address and whatever.. and then the rep gives you the phone. While they engage in the activation process, they hand you the phone and you can play around with it. Obviously the time it took to activate the phone would no longer be an issue, because you'd have the pure joy in your hands to play with. You wouldn't care if it took 2 days.. (and probably wouldn't notice either 😉 ).

Anyways, my point is that Apple will find a way to make this process quick and easy.

 

[JNB]

Anyways, my point is that Apple will find a way to make this process quick and easy.

Unless and until Apple decides to go the MVNO route, I don't think it'll ever be quick or easy. It's still gonna be the AT&T/Cingular system (and won't that be fun, with the melding of the two back ends!), and they, like all the others, are appalingly slow & stupid. Then again, it could just be the employees... 🙄

 

[aricher]

I don't know what everyone is complaining about. I've bought 2 phones through Cingular - one at Best Buy and one from Amazon. At BB I bought the phone, signed the contract, they activated the sim and I was out the door - all within 10 minutes. With Amazon I ordered the phone, they sent an email with the new phone number, shipped the phone next day delivery. When I received the phone I popped the sim in and it was already activated and ready to go. I can't imagine and activation procedure at an Apple or Cingular/AT&T store would take more than 10-15 minutes.

 

[Chris Bangle]

If carphone warehouse (chav phone shop of choice) gets an iphone exclusive like they have with prada i will be very very angry

 

[mox358]

I used to work in the cell phone industry doing Cingular activations. The biggest slowdowns in activating a phone are the credit check and the contract. With Apple not subsidizing the phone if there is not a contract required, there would be no credit check required, thus negating the two largest barriers in a quick activation. Reps are also trained to talk you into getting the largest plan they can while also getting you to add the most features. If Apple has specific iPhone plans or just lets you pick the plan you want without hassling you about it, they could do it fairly quickly.

Upgrades are as simple as changing the SIM between phones (which is easily accessible on nearly every GSM phone there is in the US, if not every single one) and technically you're supposed to call Cingular and tell them your new phone's serial number, but it will still work without doing that.

Apple's insistence that the iPhone not be subsidized could make the cell phone activation process very quick, thus making it something that could easily be done in the store. And the Cingular activation system, while not easy, isn't hard enough to learn that anybody working at an Apple store couldn't be trained to use it. Just my 2 cents.

 

[JNB]

IWith Apple not subsidizing the phone if there is not a contract required,

I may have to watch the keynote - again - but I'm pretty sure they said that the $499/$599 price points were with a two-year contract. And if anybody is subsidizing the phone, wouldn't it be Cingular?

 

[mox358]

Its been awhile since I've watched the keynote. I was under the impression from the available information that since you were buying the phone outright that the contract / contract extension was not required. I could be wrong on that matter, however other Cingular phones all work on this principle. iPhone could however be different since Cingular is already changing the rules for Apple.

And yea Cingular would be subsidizing it if anybody, I just phrased that sentence badly. What I was trying to convey was that Apple wouldn't allow Cingular to subsidize the iPhone, which I believe was one of the terms of the Apple/Cingular deal. They were afraid subsidizing the iPhone would be killing iPod sales, especially Nanos.

 

[Dead EditHer]

Then there will have to be a Cingular rep or Apple Store/Cingular-trained folks to provision the phone. Contracts, number transfer, plan options, etc. I really don't want to turn the Apple Store experience into a cell hell. Even exchanging phones these days is at least a 30-minute process, and somehow I don't think Apple wants that balling up the existing Store processes.

I just don't see it happening in-Store. The cell phone provisioning process is just too specific and time-consuming as it is in the dedicated cell phone stores.

Uh, it's not that difficult working with cell phone store in store's(BBY, Circuit City, Radioshack, etc....), all you have to do is take the proper training from the companies, and you can sell the products. Hell, I'm trained to sell wireless phones at my Best Buy, and I work Loss Prevention. I have a feeling all the bad mouthing about CSRs is that they have to sell multiple phones and plans, what I'm thinking is going to happen is that all the stores will pick 2-4 associates and have them take the training to be Cingular CSRs. I also think the training is going to be centered on just the iPhone, nothing else. There will probably be a few different voice and data plans, so that will probably be the basis for most, if any complaints.

 

[kellen]

As far as the phone being unlocked, give it a couple of weeks after the rollout and I am sure it will be hacked.

If not by somebody, then perhaps cingular will know how to do it themselves. Its not easy to get the code, but right now I have some friends who have done it by just calling up and saying they are going to europe and would like to use their phone over there with a rented sim card, customer service gave them ability to unlock.

I definitely agree that no wifi and 3g is a wrong step, but it probably wont matter with this. Going to be one hot seller, just wondering how much they will go for on ebay?

 

[charmdustio]

I definitely agree that no wifi and 3g is a wrong step, but it probably wont matter with this.

Correct me if Im wrong, but doesn't this thing have WiFi?

 

[MLeepson]

On the iPhone tech specs site:

"Wireless data Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2. "

Also, I was re-watching the keynote (I was bored) and I think Steve Jobs said there may be 3g, I think.

 

[Dablckone]

Wirelessly posted (AUDIOVOX-CDM-8915 UP.Browser/6.2.2.6.h.1.102 (GUI) MMP/2.0 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

On the iPhone tech specs site:

"Wireless data Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2. "

Also, I was re-watching the keynote (I was bored) and I think Steve Jobs said there may be 3g, I think.

Not the 1st gen iphone later ones yes..too da other post yes theres wifi how can not see that.

 

[nagromme]

Maybe Apple's intent is to have a higher-than-typical (more "true") up-front cost (thus not de-valuing hardware) but a lower-than-typical monthly cost--thus tempting more everyday consumers to use fancy data plans and mobile Internet that they normally wouldn't spring for--but which make the iPhone's capabilities shine.

In which case, the 2-year contract could be something AT&T demands in order to offer monthly data plans at a level Apple wishes to see. It might not be about subsidizing the phone, but rather about making AT&T accept lower profits in exchange for a customer commitment.

More likely, it's both: makes the iPhone a little cheaper than otherwise, and the data services a little cheaper too. (I say this because the contract and the price of the phone were mentioned together by Jobs.)

Anyway... anyone expect Apple to have iPhones on display and allow anyone to just walk up and make free calls from them? 🙂 Do mobile phone stores do that? I didn't think so, but I bet Apple will. They'd get a dicsount rate from AT&T, and would love the word-of-mouth when people say "I'm calling from an iPhone!" They already offer people free Internet, free workstations with DVD burners etc.... why not offer free "payphones" too? (It would take some employee policing--but then so do computers.)

 

[rainmanbk]

-

@nagromme

I'd say that sounds like something very possible. People often forget that they have to pay for data plans in order to use all those spiffy iPhone features. Though I'm sure AT&T will have a special iPhone plan, the idea that it will be a lot cheaper because of the 2 year agreement sounds very possible and exciting. I for one hope things actually works out this way.

As for 3G, Steve did mention that in future phones it will be there. Don't expect the first iPhone to be perfect, although it seems to be perfect. I try to think of it like the iPod evolution. the first one was great, but there were plenty of things that could be added/tweaked in the future generations to make it better. In my opinion, Apple can only make better products after experience. It's not like they didn't evaluate what would be the better option, and I trust their decisions.

 

[notsofatjames]

here in the uk, quite often you get the phone free and pay for the contract (companies sub the phone cost). Apple's pricing at $600 split between 12 months is only $50pm. I dont know if thats a standard sort of monthly cost for you guys, but it works about £25-30 which is kinda average monthly cost for contracts over here. Maybe the $600 is the cost for the year. But then jobs did say 2 year contracts... $25pm??

 

[dominicansrul93]

Crappy stores in U.S.

btw, I’m a Brit, so I’m not sure exactly how our crap phone shops and contracts compare to the USA.

They are crap here in the U.S. too! Well at least where I live which is Miami. All the stores are filled with these loud Cuban salesmen.

 

[thejakill]

i'm confused.

is it going to be possible to simply buy the phone and leave the store with it, without signing anything with cingular?

that way, you could have the phone's other functions and wait out your service plan with another provider, if you felt the need.

or, will the device even work without activation?

 

[killmoms]

i'm confused.

is it going to be possible to simply buy the phone and leave the store with it, without signing anything with cingular?

that way, you could have the phone's other functions and wait out your service plan with another provider, if you felt the need.

No, that will not be possible.

or, will the device even work without activation?

Correct, without activation it will be useless.

 

[NoCleverSNForMe]

No, that will not be possible.


Correct, without activation it will be useless.

Thank you for that. I was in the middle of writing a long response...but I like your "simple" approach better. 🙂

Let's keep it simple: If you want the iPhone, wait until your contract expires with your current provider or pay the termination fee.