AT&T improves iPhone pricing: Maybe I’ll buy the 3G S after all
AT&T is trying to soothe cranky iPhone owners today with an announcement that the new iPhone 3G S may not be as expensive as you think — specifically, iPhone 3G owners who are eligible for cheaper, “upgrade” pricing in the next few months (through September) will be able to pay the lowest upgrade price starting this Friday, when the 3G S goes on sale.
The original pricing announcement spurred lots of complaints from existing customers, including the author of this post. Basically, rather than paying the advertised price of $199 (for the cheaper 16 gigabyte 3G S), people with AT&T contracts would have to pay $599, or “only” $399 if they were a year into their contract. Not only did that create a confusing, tiered pricing system, it might also have encouraged a lot of early 3G buyers to wait months before getting the 3G S. It didn’t help that AT&T isn’t supporting several key iPhone improvements, at least not initially, provoking customer dissatisfaction and a couple subtle swipes from Apple (i.e., uttering the phrase “at least among the carriers who support this service” then waiting for bitter, bitter audience laughter) during the keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
Well, the public outcry and/or pressure from Apple seems to have had an effect. Now, most of the first wave of 3G owners will only have to pay $199, or $299 for the 32 gigabyte phone — in other words, the same price as new customers. The system is still rather confusing and complicated (note the recurrence of noncommittal phrases like “generally are eligible” and “may qualify” in the announcement) but I expect a lot of iPhone fans are going to be pretty happy about this news. I know it’s certainly testing my vow to hold-off on buying a new smartphone until next year …
[photo:flickr/Cosmic Kitty]
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About the Author, Anthony Ha
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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