** The Official WWDC 2009 Thread **

Matblack said:
[Snip]

The 3G has been turned from a crowd pleaser to a Marmite phone by the carriers who are looking to maximise profit in troubled times, whether they will kill the goose that laid the golden egg remains to be seen, its unlikely but they may leave a lot of fanboys weeping into their iPints in the meantime.

MB
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Couldn't agree more with that statement.
 
Good analysis there Matblack. For me, as an original 2G owner, the 3Gs is undoubtedly a worthwhile upgrade - for me the biggest appeal is the jump from EDGE (which itself is probably only available 20% of the time I want it) to the latest standard (HSPDA or whatever it's called!)

My only consideration is to contract or PAYG. As much as it hurts to work out the cost over an 18 month period, buying a 16GB 3Gs on PAYG for £440, plus a £20p/m simplicity tarriff works out at £800 for the period, the same as a £35p/m contract plus the £185 up front over the same period.

The appeal of not being locked into a contract is there, obviously, but I can't help but look at the contract as a chance to spread the cost for no extra £. Hmm, decisions.
 
So they have renamed the original MacBook Unibody to MacBook Pro now?

Hmmmm, i would feel privileged to have a MacBook Unibody now! :D

EDIT - Just looking at my 2.8Ghz Unibody on Apple, That has come down a hell of a lot in price! Nigh on £500!!! Nice pricing on the MacBooks, shame they have put the damn 9400m as the only GFX in the Pro models. I' with Concorde on this, it's supposed to be a Pro machine! A 9400M in a Pro machine is shocking!
 
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I think the obvious solution for O2 would be to offer 12 month contracts at a higher price - then the fanboys can upgrade every year. However, people feel the iPhone contracts are already overpriced so another price increase wouldn't be popular at all!

I got my 3G on release day. If they allow me to upgrade early - awesome, I probably would. However, I am not expecting it at all as it just doesn't make any sense for O2 to do it!
 
Matblack basically hit the nail on the head.

Personally the only concessions I can see O2 making with this are to the heavy users/enterprise crowd, i.e. the people they already give discretionary early upgrades to. Regular Joe Schmoes who just have standard contracts just aren't that valuable to O2 bearing in mind they pay Apple a certain amount of money and have to recoup a certain amount back through the contract.

Also, O2 hold all the cards - they're the exclusive provider and history has shown that even when people baulk at the price, they still pay it.

And finally, as has been remarked already, the precedence that was set previously was based off the fact that the 2G iPhone was priced very peculiarly in the market - you paid £269 for the handset up front on top of a monthly contract. Whilst it seems O2 did everyone a favour letting them upgrade to 3G early in reality O2 made their money back on the 2G iPhones a lot earlier in the contract and it cost them nothing (and gained them PR) to allow the upgrade. That doesn't apply this time around.

Assuming that they'll "do us a favour out of the goodness of their heart" is a twee fantasy really.
 
After saying all that, I'll still be buying a 32Gb on an 18 month contract on release day. But then I'm not stuck in a contract and after a bit of research I'd decided on the iPhone even before the announcement. I've been a Windows Mobile user for a long time and to be honest the potential is just wasted on me these days. I'm probably Apple's #1target market :D

MB
 
Matblack said:
After saying all that, I'll still be buying a 32Gb on an 18 month contract on release day. But then I'm not stuck in a contract and after a bit of research I'd decided on the iPhone even before the announcement. I've been a Windows Mobile user for a long time and to be honest the potential is just wasted on me these days. I'm probably Apple's #1target market :D

MB
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I'm of the opposite mind having seen the announcement.

If this had been a bigger upgrade as rumoured (e.g. OLED screen, etc) then I would most likely have got a contract myself but now I'm left wondering what's in store next year. I wouldn't want to get into a 18 month contract now knowing that conceivably this time next year could mark the release of the "true" upgrade iPhone.

If anything I'm more likely now to just pick up a 3G handset "priced to sell" from some poor fanboy who absolutely must have every new Apple toy on release day to tide me over. :D
 
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I think the best idea is to stay on your current iPhone contract, and just get the PAYG handset each time a new revision is out.

In other words just hold out your contract (expires Jan 2010 if you got a 3G) and go on a rolling month-month contract.

It's expensive, but that's the only way you're going to get each upgrade without hefty buy-out charges and what not ;)

..also means you can tell 02 to shove it when they lose exclusivity..
 
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I am a 2G iPhone user and am out of contract on the 8th of July so the iPhone 3Gs is perfect for me as an upgrade.

However I can see why the current 3G users might not see it being worth the money.

I will happily be picking one up on release day.
 
As an iPhone 3G owner I think I might wait til this time next year, If I upgraded now then I would be in the same position next year and I don't want to buy out my contract

I would hope that the next iPhone would give a big jump in features and tech to the current 3G and I wont need to worry about buying out my contract etc
 
Ok, just worked out my intended contract route for the iPhone

I will get the phone on the £44.05 contract for 18months for £87.11. Then after 9 months downgrade to the £34.26 contract for the remaining 9 months.

Works out at a total of £791.96.

Was originally going for the 24 month £34.26 contract as I don't really want to spend too much on the phone right now.
 
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Ekim said:
Ok, just worked out my intended contract route for the iPhone

I will get the phone on the £44.05 contract for 18months for £87.11. Then after 9 months downgrade to the £34.26 contract for the remaining 9 months.

Works out at a total of £791.96.
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....saving you a tenner :P

I suppose it's worth it if you'd use the extra minutes on the 45p/m deal, but pretty sure I won't get near using 600 p/m even.
 
Are there any benefits going contract than PAYG via Simplicity? Didnt certain features/services not work on the PAYG pricing model (like Visual VM and only having the free internet for 1year or something?)

Ive never consider PAYG but it may be a choice to allow that flexibility so when this time next year happens Ive got a choice - it may mean more cost in the long run I guess...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
No visual voicemail on Simplicity, everything else appears to be the same.

I've got Cloud WiFi access on my 2G on Simplicity, presumably because the original owner used to have it on a iPhone contract so the IMEI is in a database somewhere *shrug* Don't know if you get that on all iPhones though.
 
Matblack said:
After saying all that, I'll still be buying a 32Gb on an 18 month contract on release day. But then I'm not stuck in a contract and after a bit of research I'd decided on the iPhone even before the announcement. I've been a Windows Mobile user for a long time and to be honest the potential is just wasted on me these days. I'm probably Apple's #1target market :D

MB
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Im exactly the same and numerous posts in here and on Mobile phones show me as a user that disgruntled with WM phones and disappointed with the alternatives out there.

This is the first time you could really call the iPhone a multimedia smartphone and so for me its now become an option...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Freakitchen said:
Good analysis there Matblack. For me, as an original 2G owner, the 3Gs is undoubtedly a worthwhile upgrade - for me the biggest appeal is the jump from EDGE (which itself is probably only available 20% of the time I want it) to the latest standard (HSPDA or whatever it's called!)

My only consideration is to contract or PAYG. As much as it hurts to work out the cost over an 18 month period, buying a 16GB 3Gs on PAYG for £440, plus a £20p/m simplicity tarriff works out at £800 for the period, the same as a £35p/m contract plus the £185 up front over the same period.

The appeal of not being locked into a contract is there, obviously, but I can't help but look at the contract as a chance to spread the cost for no extra £. Hmm, decisions.
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Thats how I went from 2G to 3G. Sold my unlocked 2G to pay for 3G and now on Simplicity pay monthly.
I think if/when I do want the upgrade I will sell the 3G one and the 3GS will cost about £140 upfront then £20/month Simplicity, not too bad! Much rather not be tied down to 18month contract.

O2 said:
Don't forget, if you're on Pay & Go, you won't be able to get Visual Voicemail, call merging or Internet tethering. And you'll need to change your data (APN) settings to use services like mobile internet.
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You do lose those 3 things though. Tethering I wouldn't be getting anyway, rip off, visual voicemail is nice but how many people really leave you messages? Call merging I doubt I'd use as well!
 
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