iPhone News
June 15th, 2009
At the WWDC last week, Apple made made several announcements about the iPhone. For current users there’s the upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0, which has many new features, including the following:
- Cut, copy, and paste
- Landscape keyboard
- Multimedia messaging service (MMS) (although you can’t use it yet because AT&T, the US carrier, doesn’t support it)
- Tethering (once again, not yet supported by AT&T)
- Voice recording
The OS will be available on June 17th.
Then there’s the new iPhone 3G S, which is similar to the iPhone 3G but has twice the speed, four times the disk space, and almost double the battery life. Engadget has a side-by-side comparison, and Consumer reports has a good overview. The 3G S will be priced at $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for new and end-of-contract customers in the United States, and will go on sale June 19th.
The real controversy over the iPhone 3G S, however, is what’s happening to existing iPhone owners. If you’re already in the middle of less than a year into an AT&T iPhone contract, the prices go up by $200 (there is a cheaper way to do this). Additionally, the current iPhone 3G is being reduced in price to $99. So if you recently purchased one at the higher price, too bad for you. (There was an available credit, but it expired on June 14th.)
If you purchased a new 3G on or after May 9th, you can trade it in for a 3G S for a small restocking fee. According to the Consumerist, “AT&T has extended its one-month price protections for recent 3G purchasers to May 9 so iPhone 3G users who bought their phones that day or later can still turn it in and get the new iPhone 3G S for the same price on June 19. To qualify for this extended return policy, customers will need to visit an AT&T retail store and pre-order iPhone 3G S between June 8 and by June 18.”
Thanks to Josh for suggesting this topic.
Update: AT&T has changed its upgrade pricing for current subscribers who are 11 months or more into their contract. And it turns out that I was wrong in the article above—it was previously possible to get the less expensive 3G S prices if you were a year or more into your current contract.
