Iphone Upgrade plan?

[shira]

Hi, I'm curious if there will be some kind of upgrade option when the 3G comes out? Anyone know? Thanks!

[xintelinsanex]

Originally Posted by shira

Hi, I'm curious if there will be some kind of upgrade option when the 3G comes out? Anyone know? Thanks!

A bunch of rumors going around about a subsidized iPhone from AT&T that will cost about $199. I don't know if this is true or what it will entail. Maybe you will have to turn in your old iPhone, sign a new contract and then get this price for the 3G iPhone.

[carsly]

I would be surprised if they did not have an upgrade plan or something similar. Thus far the phones have no carrier subsidies so you can always purchase another and swap your SIM (though the SIMs may be different if 3G comes to fruition) and then ebay your old iphone. It is in their interests to create an upgrade plan to get the contract extension otherwise you would have a new iphone (at the same price as everyone else buying a new one) and only have a year or so left on your original iphone contract vs. two years for people who are buying new.

The other advantage, of course, with an upgrade plan that includes a phone swap is Apple / AT&T remove the inventory of 1G iPhones from used circulation thereby driving more sales of the 2nd generation iPhones at new phone pricing.

[xintelinsanex]

Apple seems like they have finished riding the initial wave of adopters. They are signing more carriers, relaxing the revenue sharing plan, etc. I would like to see a subsidized iPhone. If this were to happen, I would absolutely upgrade... see, an extra $20 a month for AT&T and another $199 split between Apple and AT&T. It's win win.

[cmaier]

Originally Posted by carsly

I would be surprised if they did not have an upgrade plan or something similar. Thus far the phones have no carrier subsidies so you can always purchase another and swap your SIM (though the SIMs may be different if 3G comes to fruition) and then ebay your old iphone.

I doubt it will be a sim-swap. As with current iphone upgrades (e.g.: 4GB->16GB), you probably use the new sim, but when you activate it in iphones you associate it with your existing phone number on your current AT&T account.

[CrazEtooN]

While an upgrade plan would be nice, they also need to air on the side of caution in not hurting new customers too badly. I agree that buying a new, expensive, device one year after initial launch hurts, but that goes with the territory of technology. In this day and age, if someone buys a Gen 1 product, they had better understand full well that the Gen 2 version will be out pretty quickly and it will have some kind of hardware features that an update won't take care of.

It sucks, but it is the nature of the beast and it keeps tech companies going.

[cmaier]

Originally Posted by CrazEtooN

While an upgrade plan would be nice, they also need to air on the side of caution in not hurting new customers too badly. I agree that buying a new, expensive, device one year after initial launch hurts, but that goes with the territory of technology. In this day and age, if someone buys a Gen 1 product, they had better understand full well that the Gen 2 version will be out pretty quickly and it will have some kind of hardware features that an update won't take care of.

It sucks, but it is the nature of the beast and it keeps tech companies going.

1) It's "err," not "air."
2) How does an "upgrade plan" hurt "new customers?" For that matter, if Apple gave me a free iPhone, how does that hurt anyone else?
3) Any "upgrade plan" will be more to smooth over differences in old and new plans and the like, and will not involve a discount (other than whatever discounts are generally available to all customers).

[inertialnav]

Could there be some technical reason Apple would want current users to upgrade? Maybe if users start adding Apps and such they would quickly run out of room. Who knows?

[cmaier]

Originally Posted by inertialnav

Could there be some technical reason Apple would want current users to upgrade? Maybe if users start adding Apps and such they would quickly run out of room. Who knows?

apple will be happy enough to take our money for an upgrade, and it's always easier to retain customers than to get new ones, but there are billions of potential new customers and only a few million old customers, so don't expect any special gifts for existing users.

And you would have to add a ton of apps before you'd run out of room. The apps will be about the size of jailbreak apps.

[xintelinsanex]

Originally Posted by cmaier

apple will be happy enough to take our money for an upgrade, and it's always easier to retain customers than to get new ones, but there are billions of potential new customers and only a few million old customers, so don't expect any special gifts for existing users.

And you would have to add a ton of apps before you'd run out of room. The apps will be about the size of jailbreak apps.

How big are jailbroken apps?