No iPhone Pre-Sales?

[Stella]

Your logic is flawed. A phone will not work without a service plan, a service plan will not work without a phone. Selling them separately doesn't make sense.

And remember Gordon Gecko; "Greed is Good."

Its very common in Europe to buy a phone outright and get the contract separately. If you buy the phone outright its then unlocked and fully featured without disabled functionality such as BT, wireless, or the ability to install 3rd party apps.

You'll pay a higher price of course, but you get an un-crippled phone - which is great

 

[beannyc]

new customer price

perhaps cingular/AT&T will have a special price for new customers like they do for a lot of their phones. when you open a new account, they always offer a slew of phones with instant rebates...

and, while i was on cingular's site one day i clicked on their online help chat and here is my dialogue... i am convinced they will offer some sort of instant rebate when opening a new account...

Thank you for your patience! A Cingular, now the new AT&T, sales representative will be with you shortly.
You are now chatting with Tasha, a Cingular, now the new AT&T, sales representative. How may I help you place your online order today?
gill: if i begin a new 2yr contract today...
gill: then when the iphone comes out in june, am i allowed to upgrade my services without a penalty?
gill: it will be two months from now, but i will still be with cingular.
Tasha: You would have to pay the retail price for the phone.
gill: for the phone i purchase today? because now it is free
gill: so i will then owe cingular for whatever phone i purchase today
gill: or do you mean the iphone?
Tasha: The phone you get today, you get at the online price. When the I phone comes out you will pay full retail for the I phone.
gill: are you also saying that cingular may/will offer some kind of online special for the iPhone with a contract?
Tasha: Yes but I don't have that price.
gill: thanx

 

[rtdunham]

... Thankfully I not interested in lubing up for a phone that pretty much does the same thing my current phone does....

that's like saying a horse does the same thing as a Porsche: they both move a person from place to place, along with some luggage. Can you spell L-U-D-D-I-T-E?

(to be serious for a moment, there's nothing wrong with some people being content with a horse (or a train instead of a jet, to extend the example)--but there's nothing wrong with others embracing new technology that does some of the same things--but more easily-and does other things too.

 

[Stella]

that's like saying a horse does the same thing as a Porsche: they both move a person from place to place, along with some luggage. Can you spell L-U-D-D-I-T-E?

(to be serious for a moment, there's nothing wrong with some people being content with a horse (or a train instead of a jet, to extend the example)--but there's nothing wrong with others embracing new technology that does some of the same things--but more easily-and does other things too.

Perhaps SiliconAddict current phone does everything he needs. No need to put him down for it.

The iPhone isn't a silver bullet, and isn't a product for everyone. It certainly isn't a product for me. Like SiliconAddict, my phone does everything I need. For myself, I would see buying an iPhone a downgrade and not an upgrade. The iPhone milage will vary for person to person.

The iPhone's ease of use has yet to be seen on a day to day basis. Is it a case of style over substance? No one has used it for long enough to make such a judgement. Playing with an iPhone for 20 minutes isn't a long enough test, it isn't using it in the real world, day to day usage.

 

[Digital Skunk]

A phone with a harddrive is going to last maybe an hour. Especially since it's an iPod. You just can't listen to music for hours and then expect your phone to also make calls. There'd be no juice left. Flash is the only option. 8 gigs is pretty substantial. I have a 15 gig ipod and I've got about 150 full cds on it. I don't need that many CDs around. So an 8 gig will hold 50 or so or a couple movies. A couple movies will drain your battery before you finish watchng them all. It's not a DVD player. Yes it'll play a movie if you want, but a portable DVD player would be a much better option for a road trip.

And if you think flash is expensive (it's not) then look at the cost of P2 cards for high end video production. 8 gigs is around a thousand bucks and all it is is a proprietary flash card.

Good flash is expensive. I agree. The iPhone does answer a few problems people like me have... how to you carry an iPod, cell phone, good PDA, and a newspaper all in one device; sync that device with iTunes, iCal, Address book, and .Mac; and finally give that device features that are useful, innovative, and easy to use. For me, I had a Nano, cheap LG phone, Palm TX (great PDA but too big) and the Baltimore Sun all in different pockets. I thought about the Treo, but it doesn't sync well and I need to buy a 4GB SD card for it to hold my music. The screen is small, blazer sucks as a web browser, the OS is pathetic, and I have to drag and drop all of my music, photos, and videos. - - Yawn - - it's 21st century who has time for that?

iPhone... yeah... if it were just $600 I'd be there on day one picking one up. Spending the night in my tent not showering or brushing my teeth. But to make the jump from a company that isn't that bad, or that much of an improvement, from Sprint would cost me $1200 or so (not to mention that all my calls to my family... the whole family... won't be free anymore) ... I am not paying that much for a phone... ever!

 

[rtdunham]

Perhaps SiliconAddict current phone does everything he needs. No need to put him down for it.

The iPhone isn't a silver bullet, and isn't a product for everyone. It certainly isn't a product for me. Like SiliconAddict, my phone does everything I need. For myself, I would see buying an iPhone a downgrade and not an upgrade. The iPhone milage will vary for person to person.

The iPhone's ease of use has yet to be seen on a day to day basis. Is it a case of style over substance? No one has used it for long enough to make such a judgement. Playing with an iPhone for 20 minutes isn't a long enough test, it isn't using it in the real world, day to day usage.

I wasn't challenging his choice of device, rather his observation that the iPhone is "a phone that pretty much does the same thing my current phone does...." And I agreed that for some people, a horse suffices, others want/need (mostly want, i'd agree) a Porsche instead, for the same basic transportation task. I agree with YOUR observation that it remains to be seen how much we like the iPhone's functionality, absence of a familiar keypad, etc., once it's in our hands.

 

[Clarence]

smart move, oh,wait a mintue, you'll have a crappy phone for 365 more days than you need to. life's too short buddy. get in while you can.

even an iphone with bugs will be miles a head of any other phone. as for the price, because the launch in all markets will take so long i don't foresee a drop in price or increase in storage untill apple has a chance to sell everyone a first generation phone. this product won't budge untill @ least x-mas 2008.

the waiting game is not the smart move on this product.

yeah my blackberry and ipod are pretty crappy. I need to tape them together and take a picture. iPhone!

 

[Mammoth]

sorry apple, even a happy user (3 macs, 1 apple tv) like me is passing on the iphone. have a sprint pda phone which is not perfect but does more than enough including streaming tv thanks to slingbox! and the unlimited data plan is only 15 with sprint. if att is going to charge more than 20 for unlimited data you will be in for a suprise because there are less idiots out there than you think.

Bud, I'd pay $100 a month for unlimited data. Be happy you don't have Canadian cell phone coverage.

That aside, I just hope the iPhone will have 3rd part support or some 3rd party web-apps. (Google Docs and the like) An iPhone without the phone bit would be nice. Very nice.

 

[mugwump]

You can get a new Cingular Treo for free on Amazon with a new contract, but then have to pay the outrageous data rate which is required for the purchase.

With a 2 year contract on the slow EDGE, paying a hefty fee for the iPhone, that data rate better be fully subsidized (free) or no more than $12 per month.

 

[noel4r]

I'll get mine next year when/if they release iPhone nano...

 

[FireArse]

I camped for a...

Seriously. You can't be serious. camping out for a phone??? Unbelievable. What is the world coming to??

I camped for my Regent Street Lucky Bag...

 

[Lyle]

Your logic is flawed. A phone will not work without a service plan, a service plan will not work without a phone. Selling them separately doesn't make sense.

And remember Gordon Gecko; "Greed is Good."

YOU don't have any logic...

Speaking as someone whose attempts at sarcasm frequently go undetected, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that TC2COOL wasn't being serious when he said that selling phones and service plans separately "doesn't make sense".

 

[SpinThis!]

I think some people are missing the point.. the article never said the phone won't be sold online so all these people complaining about "camping out" for a phone are just crazy. This is from a sales brief for reps in the stores. Most of those sales reps work on commission. They don't want their reps guaranteeing product to a customer.

I doubt the iPhone is going to be as popular as a PS3 or Wii but we'll see. (For one, those systems don't require a credit check and monthly fee to use. Forums also tend to oversaturate the excitement of a product since they don't represent the "average" customer.)

 

[diamond.g]

Well you can buy the phone then cancel service within 30 days. Since it seems we will be paying full price for the phone there shouldn't be anything to return.

 

[Lanbrown]

Amen brother! No line and no Cingular... I will pick mine up a year from now for $300 (8GB) at a Sprint store and walk out the door.

Not unless Sprint switches to GSM. The iPhone is a GSM phone, not CDMA!

 

[G*willy]

Man, I cant wait for all you folks to pay retail, work out the bugs, and suffer through an inferior network so that in June of 2008, I can get an iPhone.

No lines for me.

Yep, I'll be in line, pay retail, work out the bugs, and suffer through an inferior network, and get a NEW iPhone on a different network in June of 2009
(if I don't like Cingular. Who knows, by then they might be just as good as the one I'm on now)