The cell phone market is a dizzying magic show of misdirection. The cheap prices you see for phones are usually for new customers only, with two-year contracts and mail-in rebates. And guess what? The Apple iPhone 3G is just another cell phone.
Because of "activation fees," "upgrade fees" and just plain fees, it turns out the "$199" iPhone never costs $199.
The cheapest price is actually $217. The 8GB iPhone will cost $199 plus an $18 "upgrade fee" – or $217 – if any of these things are true:
- You have an original iPhone, or
- You are out of contract, or
- You have an AT&T plan of $99/month or more and you haven't gotten a new phone in 12 months, or
- You have an AT&T plan of $69/month or more and you haven't gotten a new phone in 21 months.
If you're an AT&T customer who isn't eligible for the $199 upgrade (i.e. you're deep within your contract), the iPhone 3G will cost $399.
If you want your iPhone on July 11, AT&T says you'll have to sign up for a two-year contract. But "in the future," a prepaid option will be available – for $599.
The 16GB iPhone costs $100 more than the 8GB model in all cases – so, $317, or $335, or $499, or $699.
Got it? The service plans are also a pain, but they're just the usual, standard, run of the mill AT&T smart phone service plans. The iPhone isn't special in AT&T's systems any more; it's just an ordinary smart phone.
Typically, those service plans cost whatever a voice plan costs ($39.99-99.99/month), plus $30/month for data. But there's one extra catch: those plans don't include text messages. So you'll need to add $5/month for 200 messages, $15/month for 1500 messages or $20/month for unlimited messages. If you're buying the phone on a business account you have to tack on an extra $15/month, just because.
All of this is normal. Confusing, but normal. These price differences happen with every cell phone. It's just the way our market works.
