Back and Forth Forever

The iPhone 3GS is out.  You want one.  You want one badly.  If you buy one, however, Apple and AT&T will take your soul and all your hard earned money.

Out of all my friends who own iPhones I think I’m the only one who is upgrading to the iPhone 3GS because everyone thinks it’s criminal for Apple and AT&T to charge you *gasp* full price for a new phone.

Let us take a step back and look at what really happened when you bought your iPhone 3G.  The iPhone 3G cost somewhere around $700 for the 16GB model at launch.  If you were coming to AT&T for the first time, or renewing your 24 month contract AT&T was nice enough to subsidize your purchase down to a more digestible price of $299.  AT&T doesn’t do this because they want to be your best friend.  It’s all business guys.  Over the course of 24 months they’ll make up the cost of their $401 investment.

Lets fast forward to present day.  You want the shiny new 32GB model.  It’s a snappier evolution of the iPhone you currently have, has more gigabytes of storage, more features, and improved battery life.  You put in all the pertinent information and get a purely evil message stating that you’ll have to pay full price for your phone upgrade.  You scream, you yell, you spew four letter words at both Apple and AT&T.

I’ll put this in perspective for you.  You bought an iPhone some time after launch day almost a year ago and renewed your contract by 24 months.  Like I said, you’re 12 months or less in to your 24 month contract.  AT&T is being nice to some people (me) and cutting us a small break, but no where near the advertised price.  Effectively at the 12 month mark they’ve realized half the investment they put in up front, and they’ll call the other half a loss and cut you a small break to earn your loyalty for another two years.

It’s story time kids!  I went sailing with my iPhone in my pocket about 9 months ago.  Some point between wading in to deeper waters and returning to the dock I realized that my phone was in my pocket and transformed in to an expensive paper weight.  After realizing my horrible mistake I hung my head in shame, scrounged up some cash and bought a non-subsidized iPhone 3G 16GB model at full price. I was 3 months in to my renewed contract and neither Apple and AT&T were at fault for my stupid mistake.

This is no different.  In no other industry can you expect to get a new piece of expensive hardware at 75% off list price.  If you want a new device, expect to pay full price for it.  If you can’t stomach the cost, then don’t.  Apple will have an iPhone Video, or iPhone 3GS x2 another 11 months from now.  I’m guessing it’ll be faster, have more hard drive space, better battery life, more features, smaller form factor, improved camera, true background application support, “One Last Thing”, and cost $800 unsubsidized through AT&T.  If you can’t wait to get your hands on a 3GS then by all means, pick one up on Friday.  Just remember you’ll be in the same boat another 12 months from now.