After reading some of posts around the ‘Net about iPhone 3G pricing, I started to get worried. As a current iPhone owner and AT&T customer, I was really excited about the price drop. Then I heard from multiple sources that current AT&T customers who are not qualified for an upgrade would have to pay $399 or $499 respectively for the 8 or 16 GB models (or worse yet, full price).
What?!?!
Well, I just got off the phone with AT&T customer service and asked what qualifies you for an upgrade. Being a current iPhone owner with an account in good standing does. I definitely qualify for the $199/$299 iPhone 3G price, and will be upgrading on Friday morning.
People that do not qualify for upgrade pricing would be someone who just bought a different subsidized phone from AT&T less than a year ago and are still under contract, or someone whose account is not in good standing. Since the previous iPhone was unsubsidized, AT&T has no reason not to give current iPhone customers the full discount off an upgrade.
However, if a customer just got a phone 2 months ago, then AT&T has not recouped their money from the subsidized phone yet. If you are a current AT&T customer and do not qualify for the upgrade discount (i.e. you switched a couple of months ago and got a LG or Treo) you can still get the iPhone at the “early upgrade” price of $399/$499 ($200 off retail) if you get one soon.
That’s still a better deal than the 1st generation 4GB/8GB iPhones that I bought a little over a year ago which were $499/$599 (at half the capacity, mind you).
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