New to AT&T, iPhone now or later?

[rebby]

My contract w/VZW expires at the end of this month and I'm strongly considering an iPhone w/AT&T. With potential updates and/or lower prices on iPhone coming in the next few months I have been considering going w/a free phone now and upgrading to the iPhone sometime over the next few months. This leaves me with a spare phone to boot.

Is there any downside, short of not getting an iPhone right away, to doing this? Will I need to totally rework my contract when I upgrade to the iPhone or can I simply add the iPhone data plan? If it matters, I will have a family plan w/one basic phone (ie: no data) and one iPhone.

Any other suggestions or lessons learned for new AT&T customers???

Thanks in advance for any assistance that you can provide...

 

[nathan1281]

Switching over

I did this exact same thing. With at&t you have 30 days to upgrade to the iphone. You have to give the free phone back before 30 days and upgrade. You have to do this to get the iphone at the 199 or 299 price depending on which phone you get 8g or 16g. So if you wan to buy some time and get the free phone first and then get the iphone go for it. Just be careful not to damage the free phone and keep all the items it comes with and the reciept. It did take a long time for me to upgrade in the store. I was in there for like 2 hrs because there is a lot of red tape that has to be done with iphones. There is not much major difference in the plans. When ever you switch to the iphone you just add $30 to your minute plan.

Hope this helps.

 

[rebby]

That does help. It basically tells me to get the iPhone right off the bat. This must have been different w/the first gen iPhone (likely due to the higher cost) because (IIRC) you could get whatever phone you wanted then upgrade to the iPhone a day later and keep the other phone as a spare. Now that at&t is subsidizing part of the cost, I guess that you can't do this any more (at the same cost anyway).

I'd rather not risk damaging the free-be just to buy myself 30 days when I'd likely need 60-90 days to benefit from any pending releases (whatever they may be). I'm already happy w/the 16gb version so I'll just get that now and call it good.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Eluzion]

I just signed up with AT&T last night (16Gb version). I was going to wait as well but I'm tired of T-Mobile (poor reception, dropped or even calls that don't come through, etc.). I had the first gen 8Gb iPhone since it was released and I'm pretty happy with the changes in this new 3G iPhone.

My guess is sometime in the next few months we'll see an iPhone refresh with bigger storage capacity but that's about it. I'm sure in Q3 of next year we'll see a new iPhone version but I'm not trying to wait that long.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll be happy with the iPhone regardless of when you buy it. Ever since I started using the first gen, I can't imagine using any other phone. The T-Mobile G1 is pretty neat but far too bulky for my liking.

 

[andyblila]

If you wait for the latest or perfect technology, then you'll never buy at all. I say just go for it. Traditionally Apple is updating once a year, so I wouldn't expect another iPhone update until next June. I could be wrong though.