Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

When the new iPhone is released, how do I "upgrade"?

J

jaredtkatz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 13, 2009
1
0
Ok,

First let me say that I am not familiar with all the intricacies of an AT&T contract, so bear with me. I currently have an iPhone 3G on a family plan. If I new iPhone came out, could I unlock my 3G, remove the SIM, sell the phone on eBay unlocked, buy a next-gen iPhone and simply insert my card? That sounds too easy, so I'm assuming that it would a little bit more difficult to simply upgrade to a new iPhone that way. Lastly, if I had to pay a fee to get a new iPhone on my current contract, could I possibly have enough money to pay the fee AND get the new iPhone by selling my 3G on ebay unlocked?

Thanks
 
Man, I can't wait for a new iPhone to come out simply to stop the nearly daily new threads, "will I be able to upgrade / how do I upgrade...."

Thank you Sky Blue for putting it so simply... no one really knows but one method I'm betting on is to log into your AT&T account, and check your upgrade eligibility. My wife's 3G was purchased around July and mine in August. We're both eligible for upgrades right now and I think its a safe bet to say that applies to a new iPhone.

Its also somewhat of a safe bet to say that Apple & AT&T know that many of those that will want a new iPhone are owners of a 3G and if that new version is released some time in 2009, no one will have owned their 3Gs for 24 months, so they'll probably make some kind of exception or even an upgrade price available.

My advice is to just wait and see. There isn't anything you can do about it so there is no sense in getting worked up about it.
 
ckurt25 said:
Its also somewhat of a safe bet to say that Apple & AT&T know that many of those that will want a new iPhone are owners of a 3G and if that new version is released some time in 2009, no one will have owned their 3Gs for 24 months, so they'll probably make some kind of exception or even an upgrade price available.
Click to expand...

Which is exactly what happened when the 3G came out. No one who bought the original iPhone who have been technically able to upgrade, as upgrading/taking advantage of discounted phones only happens after 14months of your contract. But, AT&T let Original iPhone users get the discounted/upgrade (subsidized?) price when the 3G came out. I'm ASSUMING they would do the same for the new iPhone. We shall see!
 
enklined said:
Which is exactly what happened when the 3G came out. No one who bought the original iPhone who have been technically able to upgrade, as upgrading/taking advantage of discounted phones only happens after 14months of your contract. But, AT&T let Original iPhone users get the discounted/upgrade (subsidized?) price when the 3G came out. I'm ASSUMING they would do the same for the new iPhone. We shall see!
Click to expand...

They allowed for the purchase of new iPhones at the subsidized price, but they still extended the contract by 2 years (for a total of 3 years if you only waited 1 year after buying the original iPhone), correct? They weren't just giving away iPhones at the subsidized price with no contract extention or any other strings attached, right?
 
ckurt25 said:
no one really knows but one method I'm betting on is to log into your AT&T account, and check your upgrade eligibility. My wife's 3G was purchased around July and mine in August. We're both eligible for upgrades right now and I think its a safe bet to say that applies to a new iPhone.
Click to expand...

Check again. I logged it, and it says the following:
As a valued AT&T customer, you may be eligible for an upgrade on this line, with reduced equipment pricing when signing a 2-year contract. Click ‘Upgrade Today’ to view your upgrade options.
Click to expand...

After clicking "Upgrade Today", then clicking "Smartphone" I get this:
"You are not eligible to upgrade at a discounted price due to your length of service. However, you may still purchase a phone/device at the full price. Our records indicate that you will be eligible for an upgrade at a discounted price on 12/12/2009"
Click to expand...

...I am a release day iPhone 3G owner.

anubis said:
They allowed for the purchase of new iPhones at the subsidized price, but they still extended the contract by 2 years (for a total of 3 years if you only waited 1 year after buying the original iPhone), correct? They weren't just giving away iPhones at the subsidized price with no contract extention or any other strings attached, right?
Click to expand...
Correct.
 
I've had my Edge iPhone (with AT&T) since December '07, and I think I'm eligible to upgrade now even though my 2 year contract isn't up till this winter. I'm still curious whether I'll get subsidized pricing on a new iPhone when I'm ready to upgrad this Fall; I think I'll be eligible, but I never assume too much when it comes to AT&T
 
Yes, we will have to see. Bear in mind that AT&T has been changing many of their traditional "rules" when it comes to the iPhone, but usually not in the customers' best interest. Saying that you cannot get an update because you haven't had your iPhone for the required 18-24 months is like saying the iPhone has tethering or video streaming over 3G or VoIP over 3G just because other AT&T phones allow it. My point is if AT&T/Apple find it in their best financial interest to allow an upgrade earlier than the traditional 18-24 month, they will do so. If not, then forget it.
 
jaredtkatz said:
First let me say that I am not familiar with all the intricacies of an AT&T contract, so bear with me. I currently have an iPhone 3G on a family plan. If I new iPhone came out, could I unlock my 3G, remove the SIM, sell the phone on eBay unlocked, buy a next-gen iPhone and simply insert my card? That sounds too easy, so I'm assuming that it would a little bit more difficult to simply upgrade to a new iPhone that way. Lastly, if I had to pay a fee to get a new iPhone on my current contract, could I possibly have enough money to pay the fee AND get the new iPhone by selling my 3G on ebay unlocked?
Click to expand...
It's possible there might be three tiers of prices for the new iPhone. New (with contract), upgrade (extends contract) and full price. If that is the case, people who bought iPhone v.2 will fall into the upgrade category. iPhone v.1 users get the new price, because they bought theirs without a subsidy.
Selling your v.2 phone means that you'll have money to apply to the price of an upgrade phone. However, the situation may be different since you're on a family plan. You should call AT&T or Apple after v.3 comes out. Ask them what your options are when it comes to upgrading (remember to talk to a higher level person--not a flunky--and write down names and titles).
AFAIK, the only way to unlock your phone is through yellowsn0w. However, it's difficult to say if they'll have a version available that'll be compatible with the latest software release. Presumably, you'll get a better price if your v.2 iPhone comes with the software update that includes MMS, etc.

Hope this helps.
 
If you're not out of your 2-year agreement, which nobody with a 3G is, then you're not likely going to pay just $199/299 for the phone. There may be some early upgrade deal at $399/499, but be prepared to pay. This is exactly why I waited with my EDGE phone I got 13 months ago. I've been out of my contract from my previous subsidized phone since September, so I just have to complain if the newbies get some new deal that I, a five-year customer of AT&T's, don't.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (white): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A312g Safari/528.16)

Sky Blue said:
no one knows.
Click to expand...

Wow. Paragraph upon paragraph of uninformed speculation when it took you a mere three words to fully answer the OP's question. :)
 
jaredtkatz said:
Ok,

First let me say that I am not familiar with all the intricacies of an AT&T contract, so bear with me. I currently have an iPhone 3G on a family plan. If I new iPhone came out, could I unlock my 3G, remove the SIM, sell the phone on eBay unlocked, buy a next-gen iPhone and simply insert my card? That sounds too easy, so I'm assuming that it would a little bit more difficult to simply upgrade to a new iPhone that way. Lastly, if I had to pay a fee to get a new iPhone on my current contract, could I possibly have enough money to pay the fee AND get the new iPhone by selling my 3G on ebay unlocked?

Thanks
Click to expand...

What firmware do you have on your iPhone? If you're on 2.2.1 you can't unlock it (not right now at least).

You can always buy the new iPhone, the issue is whether you can get the upgrade price (currently 199 or 299) or if you'll have to pay the full price. But if you do sell your old 3G that will cover at least part of the price of the new iPhone (whether you get the upgrade price or the full price).

enklined said:
Which is exactly what happened when the 3G came out. No one who bought the original iPhone who have been technically able to upgrade, as upgrading/taking advantage of discounted phones only happens after 14months of your contract. But, AT&T let Original iPhone users get the discounted/upgrade (subsidized?) price when the 3G came out. I'm ASSUMING they would do the same for the new iPhone. We shall see!
Click to expand...

The reason that happened is because the 2G wasn't subsidized, so ATT didn't lose money by letting people upgrade.
 
I think when the new iphone comes out I will wait a couple of months so I'm not stuck waiting and getting excited like I did when the 3G came out.. In the area I live they almost had a couple of riots when these came out.. I hate to see what it will be like now, plus when the 3.0 comes out I will wait a week because everybody will be trying to get it at the same time so there will be a lot of problems..


James
 
Can I ask you a question, OP? Why are you asking us a question that only ATT answer for sure? I mean, do you go to the Acura forum when you want to apply for a car loan?
 
enklined said:
Which is exactly what happened when the 3G came out. No one who bought the original iPhone who have been technically able to upgrade, as upgrading/taking advantage of discounted phones only happens after 14months of your contract. But, AT&T let Original iPhone users get the discounted/upgrade (subsidized?) price when the 3G came out. I'm ASSUMING they would do the same for the new iPhone. We shall see!
Click to expand...


In no way is that the same thing! Original iPhone owners paid FULL price for the original iPhone, so were upgrade eligible from the get-go. AT&T subsidized the 3G, and so you're tied into the contract until AT&T says you can upgrade, just like any other phone. Just because it's an iPhone, doesn't make it special.
 
wouldn't it be better to wait to see what apple is going to release before getting worked up? I bought an iPhone in december and I'm incredibly happy with it. There would have to be some major enhancements on the phone to try to pursue the idea of trading up. Either way I figure I'll find out in a month, why get all aggravated or worked up about AT&T's refusal (or non-refusal) to allow existing owners to buy the new phone at the rebated price.

Enjoy what you have and not worry about what apple or AT&T may or may not do

:)
 
JPIndustrie said:
Can I ask you a question, OP? Why are you asking us a question that only ATT answer for sure? I mean, do you go to the Acura forum when you want to apply for a car loan?
Click to expand...
I think he'll think twice about posting here next time, considering the amount of smug elitist pricks like you :)
 
In general, upgrades after two years are of course fine (original iPhone 1st gen), after a full year partially subsidized with new contract (early 3G buyers) and less than a year penalized (100 bucks at most towards purchase.) Since the first two groups are huge I don't see ATT immediately bending over backwards to help group three.
 
Hey guys, I think they will allow iPhone 3G customers to upgrade. I just dialed the *NEW# code and received a text back saying I am not eligible until Dec but if I wanted an iPhone I am eligible for the upgrade with an $18 upgrade fee. I purchased my 3G when they came out last July.
 
enklined said:
Which is exactly what happened when the 3G came out. No one who bought the original iPhone who have been technically able to upgrade, as upgrading/taking advantage of discounted phones only happens after 14months of your contract. But, AT&T let Original iPhone users get the discounted/upgrade (subsidized?) price when the 3G came out. I'm ASSUMING they would do the same for the new iPhone. We shall see!
Click to expand...

How many times does this need to be said? It's because 2G iPhone owners didn't get a subsidized price.
 
Excellerator said:
Hey guys, I think they will allow iPhone 3G customers to upgrade. I just dialed the *NEW# code and received a text back saying I am not eligible until Dec but if I wanted an iPhone I am eligible for the upgrade with an $18 upgrade fee. I purchased my 3G when they came out last July.
Click to expand...

It sounds a lot like the message I get. I think it means that we aren't eligible for the full discount until December, but are eligible for a lesser discount, such as $499 instead of $299 like when the 3G came out.
 
Interstella5555 said:
How many times does this need to be said? It's because 2G iPhone owners didn't get a subsidized price.
Click to expand...

Not enough times. It would be nice if someone made an new iPhone FAQ sticky post with this mentioned so it wouldn't need to be so much. I can almost guarantee that the people who bought a 3G last year will be able to do it for about $200 more than people out of the contract. That seems to be how AT&T does it for EVERY frickin' phone, yet every day 20 noobs come on here and think the iPhone is some special deal. AT&T makes that $400 or whatever subsidy back based on service charges over two years. If they allowed midpoint upgrades at the same price, they'd theoretically be losing $200/person. I don't think AT&T is into losing $200.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back