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iPhone doing a Wii?
- Thread starter sinstoic
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Don't you have to sign a service contract? If so, hoarding will probably be slim...
There was that rumor floating around though that you might be able to buy the phone and sign up for a contract later through iTunes, so that could cause a problem.
That being said, there are more iPhones expected at launch then there were Wiis. Plus there's not a Christmas deadline around the corner to increase demand even more.
I'm sure there will be some ebayers, but i doubt they'll be able to get extremely higher prices for iPhones (at least until someone finds a way to unlock them, at which point it's availability will probably be bigger).
Hopefully they'll be available
I dunno...it's hard to tell. With the Wii or PS3....you buy it....walk out...go home...hook it up....play it. With the iPhone, you're buying it for some major $$...AND having to commit yourself to a two year service plan WITH a data service.
That's quite a lot to swallow for your typical consumer.
I'm hoping we'll get some more clear information as to how many are expected at stores. I'm not taken any chances....I plan to camp outside a AT&Tingular store just as soon as it's confirmed to have some at launch.
Thoughts?
Arc
I dunno...it's hard to tell. With the Wii or PS3....you buy it....walk out...go home...hook it up....play it. With the iPhone, you're buying it for some major $$...AND having to commit yourself to a two year service plan WITH a data service.
That's quite a lot to swallow for your typical consumer.
I'm hoping we'll get some more clear information as to how many are expected at stores. I'm not taken any chances....I plan to camp outside a AT&Tingular store just as soon as it's confirmed to have some at launch.
Thoughts?
Arc
I know a lot of people who will buy an iPhone, cancel contract with AT&T and use it with their favorite mobile network provider. A lot of cash rich guys in Europe would like to procure iPhone and flash it! iPhone is after all a GSM phone and the unlocking method is no different than any other phone.
Each phone manufacturer has their own specific method of locking/unlocking their phones. For example, to unlock a Motorola phone you have to use a piece of software to flash the phone's firmware and I think Nokia's are hardware-based. We just don't know how Apple will lock the iPhone but I'm pretty sure we'll see an unlocking method by July.
with Cingular if you cancel within 30 days you must return the phone. after that you need to pay a big penalty. people are willing to spend $1000 on a phone that no one knows can be unlocked and will be feature crippled when not on the AT&T/Cingular network? if everything Apple and AT&T are saying is true it is much more difficult to unlock the iPhone. they're doing everything they can to make it stay on the AT&T network.
I'm not certain if you'll be able to buy the iPhone without a contract. Additionally, some people are reporting that you'll be required to buy a data plan, which would make the iPhone ridiculously expensive. If the data plan does turn out to be $30, your phone bill will be at least $75/mo. I posted a story about this over at my blog, calculating the total cost of owning an iPhone and comparing it to something like the Moto Q with the Sprint SERO plan. If you're interested, you can read it from the link below.
http://www.theiphonecountdown.com
Hi
If it's just a 2 year voice contract required, there is still a way that sellers could get one for resale. Not only that. Demand would be reasonably high. What demand? Depending if Apple / AT&T require you to be within the discount qualifying period in order to purchase an iPhone, there will be those looking to eBay, ... to grab an iPhone without the need of extending their current contract.
What a person could do, in theory, is purchase an iPhone either as a new customer or renewal -- policy unknown --, purchase another phone -- likely cheaper -- that is either locked to AT&T or unlocked, use that for themselves, and sell the iPhone -- hopefully for a reasonable / worthwhile profit.
Unfortunately, there are still some major pieces missing from the puzzle.
If it's just a 2 year voice contract required, there is still a way that sellers could get one for resale. Not only that. Demand would be reasonably high. What demand? Depending if Apple / AT&T require you to be within the discount qualifying period in order to purchase an iPhone, there will be those looking to eBay, ... to grab an iPhone without the need of extending their current contract.
What a person could do, in theory, is purchase an iPhone either as a new customer or renewal -- policy unknown --, purchase another phone -- likely cheaper -- that is either locked to AT&T or unlocked, use that for themselves, and sell the iPhone -- hopefully for a reasonable / worthwhile profit.
Unfortunately, there are still some major pieces missing from the puzzle.