Likely because the launch of a new iPhone is on the horizon, AT&T has been nice enough to bump up upgrade eligibility to June 21st, instead of November 21 as previously seen. Could this mean that AT&T just wants you to buy the latest iPhone, or does it signal that maybe Apple’s handset will be sold on two carriers this year?
With AT&T shortening the upgrade eligibility for users, it will be losing a lot of money in subsidies but it still wants its customers to upgrade so they are locked into some sort of contract. So, the five months that the user would have paid for AT&T’s service would help the carrier pay off the subsidized price of their previous phone. With the upgrade option much sooner now, AT&T has to finish paying for the subsidies of the previous phone, as well as the device the user upgrades to.
If the iPhone 3GS sold as well as it did, the new one will sell much better. The 3GS was only a good enough upgrade to shell out the cash for one, but nothing like the jump from the original handset to the iPhone 3G. The next Apple phone may make quite the leap from the 3GS, with rumored specs of the iPad’s 1 Ghz processor, a front-facing video camera and a better screen. Apple’s business strategy is to literally make their previous versions of their products obsolete. Up until now, that wasn’t much of a problem, as the same operating system could run on all its smartphones. That’s not the case this time around, which is even more incentive for users still holding onto the 3G version to upgrade to the latest device, which is expected to be announced this June.
Rumors of a Verizon iPhone have been around forever, and it seems like these are resurfacing like never before. But is it believable? We’ve just learned that Apple and AT&T signed a 5-year exclusivity contract, but people are wondering if that still stands true. I couldn’t imagine Apple loves the idea of going on Verizon. While it wants as many people as possible using their products, Verizon would surely want their logo on the touchscreen smartphone, but I don’t think Apple would want to take away from their minimalist look to their design.
One thing is for sure: If you’re sporting an iPhone 3GS right now and upgrade to the newest iPhone later this year, you’re going to pay for it somehow. Whether it’s dropped calls or high prices, you can count on that. But that may not be too much of an issue, since iPhone users are probably used to that.
[Update]
AT&T contacted us to let us know that they haven’t officially bumped up any eligibility requirements with any hard dates, but that they have extended early upgrade options to some users. AT&T says that’s a good thing. We agree 100%.
“…there has been no change in policy around eligibility dates. Our existing policy aims to allow customers to upgrade to new devices as early as possible – exact timing is based on a variety of factors (length of contract, payment history, etc.) unique to each customer’s account. We constantly update our systems based on these factors, meaning some customers become eligible earlier than they anticipated, which is a good thing for our customers.”
[Via: MobileCrunch]