No More Online iPhone Sales | 3g Data Prices

[jccastro]

What will happen in Europe, in some countries they canīt force you to buy the plans, which prices will be there?

[StealthBravo]

i have had t-mobile, verizon, and at&t. i have read all the contracts and fine print. if you cancel the plan within 3 days you can either return the phone or pay for the phone which will be full retail price.

Wrong in the iphone contract there will be a a 450 fee for canceling or return the phone. It is the same now if you try to buy a phone with a 2yr contract and get 200 dollars off, if you cancel you have to pay the extra 200 or give the phone back.

[teufel657]

AT&T will be putting kiosk on Apple Stores to handle activations.

It's not tough to do activations from any computer on the internet for ATT. I've worked at store where we did t-mobile and ATT. All we did was log in to their server and go through the registration.

[reeko]

this brings me back to the other thread i started then, because this is interesting.

on the US apple store site, in the iphone section, bottom right it clearly states under system requirements:

"AT&T service (minimum 2 year agreement)"

whereas in the UK it states:

"Wireless service" and not an O2 service (minimum 2 year contract) as it should do.

And there is no way O2 are going to put little help booths in apple stores here in the UK.

I think that perhaps the americans among us might be a bit unluckier than the rest.....

[cawaker]

I find it hard to believe Apple would add ATT substations to the retail shops, to me that'd go against the whole retail experience and looks that apple has going.

[StealthBravo]

I think that people in the states will be buying their iphone 3g from out of the country

[reeko]

i honestly think with the wording on the apple store US compared to the european countries, AT&T is really grabbing the 3G iphone by the balls and forcing you all into contracts. There is to much competition for phones in europe, the iphone isnt technically any superior than any other phone and phones in europe all come free with contracts.

O2 and other european providers wouldnt gain enough to make this worth while in europe.

[StealthBravo]

They are just small kiosks that will handle iphone accounts

[the sr5]

Everyone forgot a bigger issue here..THIS WILL END JAILBREAKING! Because everytime you jailbreak and iPhone it "reactivates" the phone over iTunes after resetting the phone. Now that iTunes won't be doing the activating, what are you going to do? Jailbreak it, and then take it back to the store and ask them to activate? Ill be sticking with my current phone.

What are you talking about? this will not stop jailbreaking... once a phone is activated it is activated weather or not it was in the store or on your home PC... they can not stop that process do to the fact that when the phone gets a firmware update it has to activate again... well not fully activate but reactivate... this will not stop jailbreaking in any way...

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Right now the basic minimum iPhone plan is $39.99 for 450 anytime minutes, unlimited night and weekend + $20 for unlimited data + 200 text.

My plan, as you describe above, is $49.00 + $20 a month.

[the sr5]

i honestly think with the wording on the apple store US compared to the european countries, AT&T is really grabbing the 3G iphone by the balls and forcing you all into contracts. There is to much competition for phones in europe, the iphone isnt technically any superior than any other phone and phones in europe all come free with contracts.

O2 and other european providers wouldnt gain enough to make this worth while in europe.

To be honest it is called smart marketing.. AT&t and apple have found a way to corner the market... good for them...

[StealthBravo]

What are you talking about? this will not stop jailbreaking... once a phone is activated it is activated weather or not it was in the store or on your home PC... they can not stop that process do to the fact that when the phone gets a firmware update it has to activate again... well not fully activate but reactivate... this will not stop jailbreaking in any way...

You can still hacktivate it but the tough part will be buying one at all.

[reeko]

wow, the donations needed for a developer to get a hold of a test iphone 3g......

[teufel657]

They are just small kiosks that will handle iphone accounts

It's not even a kiosk , all you need is a computer.

[Atreides]

So if I understand correctly, and there's merit to the statements made, the early termination fee for iphone 2.0 accounts would be $450? If that's the case, and a 16GB model is $299 - that is $749 total cost of ownership so far.

Key question: When you early terminate do they unlock the phone? It would seem to me that would be a MUST. Makes sense, since I recall the Euro phones being around $750 unlocked. If they don't unlock the phone for that price, then they are leaving you holding a phone which cannot be used? Not consistant with most cases. My experience is when you terminate, most carriers furnish upon request the unlock codes so you can port phone (fully paid for) to another network.

[the sr5]

You can still hacktivate it but the tough part will be buying one at all.

im ATT anyway so buying one will be no problem...

once again, Apple and ATT have found a way to corner the cell market, and they are going to use it to they're full advantage... i dont blame them it is a great product and if people unlike the ones that are on this forum that have jailbroken and unlocked they're devices, want the device, that didnt buy it in the first place due to price and contract reason, will switch, because you have to understand theyre are still alot of people that dont know how or dont want to deal with buying a device for the price it was at and then hacking it to make it work for them... just simple knowledge, but as for people like us... we dont care we just want it for free because we have had it for free... haha and no matter what someone will find a loop hole...

[lefty83]

if this is true and the new iphone will only be sold with a forced contract..I will have to laugh at all those people that recently sold their jailbroken/non contract iphones in order to save up for the new one..now the old iphones are sold out everywhere and the new ones come only with a contract...haha..people with no patience..probably have to go on ebay and spend more then retail again in order to buy back your phone...

[McGeeTM]

I find it hard to believe Apple would add ATT substations to the retail shops, to me that'd go against the whole retail experience and looks that apple has going.

i work with AT&T and one thing you will learn, AT&T has alot of money to throw away, and ways to make more by doing this they will do. Also you will soon notice new AT&T stores named: Experience Stores which is just like a Bestbuy, but for AT&T products.

[StealthBravo]

It's not even a kiosk , all you need is a computer.

Well you could do it with just a laptop in theory but they will be kiosks.

[m3thodandr3d]

Seems like first gen iPhones are going to skyrocket in price. No one will pay over $750 for an unlocked 3G iPhone. Considering the fact that you can buy one for $200 on a contract. Thank god I kept mine. Now I'll go to the store and swap my iPhone to get a brand new refurb. If you notice when you get a refurb unit, it says Apple warranty of 3 months from the time you got it fixed or the remaining warranty. So technically if you purposely broke your iPhone every 3 months and swapped it out for a refurb, eventually they will run out of iPhones and have to give you a 3G. LOL I know I sound crazy for saying that.