Buying the iPhone 3GS: Existing customers, buying from either Apple or AT&T doesn't matter, and woe to the non-upgrade eligible!

Figured I would blog this to put an actual experience buying an iPhone 3GS, with details on upgrades and non-upgrade purchases. Not to mention that...I mean, c'mon. I gotta have a blog post about the new iPhone, and at this point, aside from what everybody already knows from the WWDC, this is all I've got to add.

I'll start with the bad news: if you're not eligible, this article from Boing Boing is the reality:

IPHONE 3G S: WORLD'S BEST PHONE SADDLED TO WORLD'S WORST CARRIER

The article states:

For non-qualified customers, including existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $499 (8GB), $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB). Visit www.wireless.att.com for eligibility information.

Lucky for me, this doesn't apply. I didn't see the upgrade to 3G to be worth it. True I was a little jealous of the network speed now and then and the maps feature on 3g worked better, but the overall ROI just didn't seem to be there. Funny the things people said; the CEO of a startup I did some work for said, "you must not be a power user". Erm...no. I'm just an adult that made a decision based on value.

Anyway, let's talk about upgrade purchase. I have an OG iPhone, have had it since day one. Yesterday I bought a 32gb 3GS iPhone from the Apple Store, right after I got the email following the WWDC, so it was about 6:30 p.m. EST. It cost $299, and the ordering process appeared aware of my current AT&T plan and upgrade eligibility, actually asking me if I wanted to upgrade any portion of it. I also paid for one-day shipping, which was $16 dollars. The total was $337.05 with tax, and the shipping date is June 19th. All this was sent to me in an order confirmation as well, so as far as I can tell, I'm good.

So, to clarify, because people have told me otherwise...THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BUYING FROM THE APPLE STORE OR AT&T. NONE. The Apple store is aware of your upgrade options and so on, and AT&T customer service told me point blank that it doesn't matter.

Why didn't I buy from AT&T directly? Only because I got the offer email from the Apple Store first, and wanted to place me order ASAP.

Anyway, to nail in the facts, I went to the AT&T site, and checked out both "Add an new Line", and "Upgrade".

This picture was identical for both "add a new line" and "upgrade". Note it's $299.



A visit to the website, a call to customer service, and my email confirmations, confirmed it all. If you're reading this, you have the facts: eligible for an upgrade, the phone will cost you $299, not eligible, it'll cost you $699 for the high end. And there is no difference if you buy it from the Apple store or from AT&T.

I'll tell you this, for that money, I would just upgrade the 3G to the 3.0 OS and forget the new phone; wait for the next one. I just don't see it being worth the money, exactly as I didn't see the 3g being worth the money compared to the original, and, if you're already a 3g owner, you're on the faster network. I have a feeling that, aside from the better camera (which really still isn't all that great) and the bigger capacity for the high end one, there isn't much of a difference to the typical user.

What would NOT surprise me though, is if all of us upgraders get ROOKED six months from now, exactly as we did when the iPhone first released, the price plummeted later on, and they gave us a $100 rebate usable for in-Apple-store purchases (thanks Steve J. for the $87 power cord for my $3,200 first-day Macbook 17). Six months later they'll put out a faster network and another phone on it or some BS like that. Apple has a history of this and it sucks.

But then I'll just resign myself to another two years, and enjoy my new iPhone, exactly as I do my current one. I never lost a contract because I broke out a pre-3G.

There you have it. As always, thanks for visiting.