Luckily there isn't a huge overcharge for us original iPhone owners, however during an attempt at pre-ordering I was charged $18x2 for random fees.
I know a few people who have the pre already and they are happy with it, however I don't know anyone who is dissapointed with the iPhone. And in non major urban areas I believe AT&T has better coverage.

I'm getting a Pre. Screw AT&T and their behind-the-times network (no MMS or tethering for a few months? I forget which year this is!).

Sprint, of course, isn't that much better.

I have nothing to contribute regarding the iPhone, but I was charged the $18 upgrade fee when I re-signed my contract & upgraded my phones. I called AT&T & asked them to waive the fee, and they did. Without a fight. Without even having to provide much of a reason, actually. I told them that I didn't know what the charge was for; when they explained it, I said I didn't like it. And then it was gone.

"...because if you currently have an iPhone and more than 6 months left on your contract, you'll have to pay $417-$517 for the newer model."

Um, yeah. That's how every cell phone company in the US works. You sign a contract, you get a subsidized phone. When the contract is up, you can get a new phone at the subsidized price. If you want a new one before that time, you pay more. How is this confusing?

Meh. I just got an iPhone 3G and I love it. The new features of the 3GS are pretty awesome, but I'm in no hurry, especially since I get the 3.0 upgrade for free anyway, which handles a bulk of the features that I wanted. Original iPhone users can upgrade pretty cheaply as long as they actually qualify for a phone upgrade.

The reasoning behind the higher price for anyone with more than six months left on their contract is because users typically aren't eligible for phone upgrades until about 4 or 5 months before their contract end date. So if you are eligible for an upgrade soon, it'll coincide with the last few months of your contract date and you can just wait a little while longer before you upgrade.

@ophmarketing: I've been wondering the same thing. It's like people have never had a cell phone plan before.

This doesn't make any sense. You're suggesting this advice for people under contract w/ AT&T that aren't eligible for the subsidy for the new iPhone. Won't these same people be hit with an ETF if they jump ship from AT&T to Sprint?

Seriously I can't believe this is a issue. I have never in my entire cellilar history at Version been able to just GET the upgrader price without my contract being up.

Its insane that people think they CAN get it. I understand why the iPhone to iPhone 3G was different, one was subsidized, the other was not. But these are TWO subsidized phones now, totally different ballgame.

Why is that concept so foreign to some of these people?

@ophmarketing: Really. This is nothing even moderately new in the world of subsidized phones.

Notwithstanding, it was pointed out that most will be eligible for the standard upgrade pricing (significantly lower) once they hit the 1 year mark on their contract. The iPhone 3G hasn't even been out for a year (will be in July for most), a point at which few if any carriers in the US will ever give you the subsidized pricing when you're in a 2 year contract.

Yeah, except that if you don't qualify for upgrade pricing, it's probably because you've got a current iPhone 3G, which means you're still in year one of your current two-year contract. That means you're on the hook for the ETF, which is going to make the numbers a lot less attractive.

I think what's going to happen here is that most iPhone users are going to tough it out 'til 18mos when they're eligable (and let's face it the 3GS isn't that revolutionary anyway, so this is going to be pretty tolerable), and the fanboys are going to pay for an upgrade right now.

The Pre is pretty interesting, but if there's any network crappier than AT&T's 3G disaster, it's Sprint, so at this point, I'm not sure I'd want to go from bad to worse.

@Jim Topoleski: I'm not sure either. But, I've always been able to get the upgrade price without my contract being up. The latest case in point is that I'm eligible for an upgrade on a phone in two years, but at least 4 months before my contract is up. I'm still under contract at that point, but I am eligible for an upgrade.

@uptown: Yep, though they qualified it with the 6 months thing.

Regardless its a stupid argument, they want the iPhone just suck it up and wait it out. God forbid you not have CUTTING EDGE for 6-12 months.

I love my mac, but the one thing that ALWAYS pisses me off, is that Apple fans tend to have this complex where they NEED to one up each other with their machine.

@uptown: Yeah, I realized the dumbness of my initial post shortly after publishing. I un-published and changed it, so hopefully new readers will never see the original, nonsensical suggestion.

I really don't understand all the "outrage" going on. Why does everyone feel they MUST upgrade, simply because it was released/announced? Wasn't your current phone perfectly acceptable to you before yesterday?

I'm still using iPhone Gen 1 and have no desire or intention of upgrading at any time now or in the future because guess what: it works perfectly fine. If anything, I may consider downgrading back to a regular old cheap cell like the Razr. All this ridiculous ongoing expense for these phones is just wasteful. 20,000 apps of which 19,997 are completely useless and unnecessary, the rigid monthly plans, and most of all the overblown hype about every last detail, that really isn't that great to begin with.

Whether it's a 1st Gen or 3Gs, or any other phone for that matter, cameras in cell phones SUCK for anything but emergency traffic accident insurance photos. Want to take good pictures or video? Buy a CAMERA.
The 3Gs is faster you say? Okay... really? So what? How "fast" does your cell phone need to be? Will it allow you to dial numbers faster? Is it going to drastically increase your daily production to have your home screen load .00001 milliseconds faster than yesterday?
The compass? Really? You need a compass so badly that life cannot continue without upgrading to this phone? If you need one so badly, go to any sporting goods store and buy a compass for $5 bucks, or do it the soldier's way and use your watch.

Anyway, the point is I think there is way too much mania going on with all these phones, and this crazy notion that you MUST upgrade on every release at any cost is just insane. For most people I truly believe it's more about status with peers than any real new functionality.

A lot of people seriously need a reality check.

I really love my jailbroken 3g, there's nothing compelling about upgrading to the 3GS. Going from a mediocre camera to a slightly less mediocre one? No thanks, I'll use my DSLR I've had for years (d50). Video? I've had it for a while... not with autofocus but on any cell phone, it's more of a gimmick anyway.

Compass? If I'm lost, I'll use GPS. If I plan on doing any orienteering, I'm not going to rely on an iphone, I can tell you that.

Voice command. That's a cool feature. That makes you look like a dumbass.

What else is there? oh a faster processor. oh, ok. $400 so I can load email 1.3 seconds faster.

/snarky rant

@Chris Walters: Your original headline still shows on this page. It's changed on the main page though.

@BZMedia: couldn't agree with you more. The phone is targeted at new users, IMO. I actually consider this a favor to existing iphone users who don't have to feel obsolete, even after 2 years of owning the thing.

@lpranal: Okay...so don't upgrade. The point is, if you are at that special time in which you can be free of your contractual obligations to one cell phone carrier, you can head on over to Sprint. Current iPhone users can stay put and wait until they're eligible, and pay a lower price.

And comparing the 3G (or 3GS) camera with a DSLR is ridiculous. You definitely can't tuck that camera into your pocket, can you? The camera on the iPhone isn't amazing, but you obviously shouldn't compare it to a DSLR that cost more than an unsubsidized iPhone.

How much is the ETF for getting out of your contract early? Cause it looks like it'd be cheaper to pay that, then sign up for new contract and get a 3GS.

You can get a new phone at any time, for the contract price - just destroy your existing phone. You really think if your phone gets stolen/dropped in a lake you have to pay $500 bucks to get a new one? If that were the case, wouldn't the logical solution be to cancel your contract, pay the fee, and start a new contract for much less?

Quit making shit out to be so complicated when it's not.

You're totally underselling the G1.

One of the main reasons the G1 is clunky is that it has a REAL keyboard and I don't mean the cramped, barely useable keyboard on the Pre. It's awfully hard to put a keyboard that size in a tiny package.

Basically with the G1 you get everything - physical keyboard AND onscreen keyboard, focusing camera, video recording, MMS, cut/copy/paste. And it's cheaper.

Pretty much the only reason not to get a G1 is the lack of good native Exchange support (thought there are add-ons) if that's a key factor for you.

If you don't care to have a physical keyboard, there are/will be other Android options, but at the moment none so cheap.

@ophmarketing: I thought when you're renewing your contract you got a discount on a new phone but nothing nearly as good as the deal you get when you're a new customer.

At least that's the way it worked with Verizon and their "New Every Two" plan. Sprint seems to do the same thing too.

@B: An ETF is (I think) $175. But if you cancel, then resign, your phone number will be out there in the stratosphere and they're going to see right through your scheme if you're trying to port your number to a new plan on AT&T and the last carrier listed is AT&T and it says you had a plan a week before you arrived to get a new one.

@ophmarketing: It's not, unless you're an Apple fanboy with a sense that you're entitled to every new piece of Apple hardware the instant it comes out.

If it makes it any easier, just take into consideration how next year your 3GS would be obsolete due to Apple's forced obsolescence software. First MMS on 2G and now this:

[www.apple.com]

Show battery percentage:

Tap Usage and turn Battery Percentage on to display the percentage of battery charge next to the battery icon in the upper-right corner of iPhone [b](iPhone 3G S only).

Don't Harsh my buzz, man! You don't own me!

I'll stand pat with Windows Mobile 6.1/6.5, thank you very much.

@pecan 3.14159265: ok, you talked me into it. I'm not upgrading.

And actually, I have fit my DSLR in my pocket before. Granted it was a cargo pocket on pants I use specifically for photography for that reason. But if I want to take pictures, I bring my D50. Only place I haven't brought it is swimming (though they make housings for it). My point was only that while the prospect of a shiny new toy is nice, it boils down to basically something "new" that doesn't really offer me, as a 3G user, anything of value, especially relative to the price.

@BZMedia: Exactly! Though we shouldn't get too miffed at the people who are dying to get the latest and greatest product. Because of their ravenous consumerism I don't think I've paid more than $250 for any electronic I own and that includes an XBox360 and laptop computer. Paitence is a virtue. Excuse me while I go get my $99 Iphone...

@B: AT&T actually keeps customer records after you end your contract with them. And, knowing AT&T, they would probably tell you you could do this, and then when you try to buy the phone as a "new" customer, stick you with the unsubsidized price.

@Cocoa Vanilla:

Try the Samsung Omnia on Verizon's network. I love it. I'm not sure what all the hype is about the iPhone. It's got a slightly larger screen than the Omnia but that's it. The Omnia has a 5MP camera, video recording capabilities, tethering and all the other goodies. Now, if only the Samsung i8910 was in the States. That's a beast of a phone. 8MP camera, HD recording, HDMI port...

@Real Cheese Flavor:

Actually... on Verizon's network, you can get a new phone every year. If you get a new phone at the one year mark, you'll get a $50 discount. If you wait until the two year mark, you'll receive the same discount as if you were a new customer.

@pecan 3.14159265: I have the same: eligible for an upgrade in November, but my contract expires in the March after.

Not sure why there's that 4-month difference but it doesn't matter to me anyway (my fiancé and I use the same provider so we're rolling into a more cost-efficient family plan).

@Jim Topoleski: Which is ironic when you consider the longevity of Apple machines. My 5-year-old iBook runs fine. It whimpers when I use anything resource-heavy, but is still operational.

@max_k: Yeah, how did they manage to ignore that little fact? Maybe it's under the guise that it will pay for itself on a cheaper plan...

@Troy F.: I dunno, I had a G1 for a week when it first came out and was left really unimpressed with the hardware. I can't say enough good things about Android but the camera was more or less unusable (hopefully firmware upgrades have fixed that since last November), the thing squeaked when I flipped it open to type, and in the open position the top section was at the slightest angle instead of parallel to the keyboard section.

They were all small things, but they really bothered me, esp. on top of the phone just being fairly large to begin with. I was hoping if anything, it would have felt overbuilt due to its size; instead it felt kind of cheap.

@th1nwhiteduke: Uhhh, I guess you've never broken your phone before. That is not how it works at all.

If your phone gets stolen/dropped in a lake, you DO have to pay the $500 to replace it, unless you have insurance. This is why some people pay $60/year + $50 deductible on phone insurance- to avoid the $500 hit when they break their phones.

You are always free to cancel your contract I guess (even without a broken phone), but then you get hit with the ETF + the subsidized phone price + new contract activation + you may lose your phone number since they may not let you port it from themselves.

Quit making shit seem so simple when its not.

@pecan 3.14159265: That's how it works. I've always been eligible a few months before my contract is up to get a new phone. 4 months seems about right. They use it as a way to get you to sign a new contract. You can't change phone carriers for 4 months ... but looky! Eligible here for a brand new phone!

The people going "WAAAH TOO EXPENSIVE" are just as bad as the people gong "WAAAH I WON'T UPGRADE YOU ARE STUPID IF YOU ARE GETTING AN IPHONE!"

@Joe Reilly: Also wanted to toss in there that I agree with the other commenters that the Apple fanboys are being ridiculous about wanting a subsidized phone in the middle of their contracts.

@lpranal: I don't think anyone really cares about your camera usage.

@BZMedia: So now I've just added a compass and a camera to my pockets that already have a phone in them.

It's obvious you're not a potential customer, but applying your set of values and what features you attach worth to as the universally correct way to purchase a cell phone is just arrogant.

Not everyone cares about status; some just like being able to have everything they want to carry on them in one device.

@hewhoroams: I've had sprint for a long time and while i can say that their customer service and many other things have gone to shit, mostly since they acquired nextel, I can say that sprint has excellent coverage. I live in a rural area and have traveled all across the country with sprint and I think I've only seen my phone go into roaming once because of the area, and my contract came with free domestic roaming anyway. That being said the one time I was roaming was in San Antonio... on a train to arizona... and at the end of the month the bill said I was roaming in mexico city and because of their now awful customer service it took FOREVER to get straightened out -_-

@hewhoroams: @pecan 3.14159265: Yeah, I have an original iPhone and didn't really feel the need to upgrade to the 3G, but am getting a 3GS since it actually has new features in addition to the 3G. If I had a 3G, I wouldn't upgrade, though.

@Etoiles: There's a 4-month difference because if you get a new phone, you sign a new contract. If they wait 'til the end of your contract, you may decide to get that new phone with someone else.

@Joe Reilly: I guess I have, otherwise I wouldn't have brought it up. It's exactly how it worked with two dead Blackberries and one dead iPhone. Never any phone insurance. Extended contract two years from that date, paid the promotional phone price each time in 2004, 2006, and 2007, but did have to pay an activation fee each time.

@Joe Reilly: Right, get insurance, then drop your phone in a lake

@Gramin: I was told that they will let you upgrade up to a year early for a $20 charge.

@pecan 3.14159265: Good points.

I think it's important to remember that smartphones, for better or worse, are far more subsidized than the regular phones. This is predicated on the supposition (sorry) that smartphone customers will pay more for their services AND that the phone will be kept for a longer period of time.

Here in Canada, Rogers has "spending" tiers that can qualify you for an upgrade as early as 12 months into a contract and 24 months on a smartphone.

I don't understand why people treat these companies like charities. I agree that they already make enough money to let this stuff fly and that, for the most part, they're rotten, money grubbing operations to the core.

Ultimately, all this stuff is a luxury, no matter which way you put it. I'd still claim that I couldn't run my business without my iPhone. Honestly though, I'd probably manage. And as much as I would like voice control, a video camera and *cough* a compass (maybe not), as Pecan Pi said, most of the 3.0 features are freely available to anyone with an iPhone.