*** Official iPhone thread - NO IPHONE POSTS ALLOWED OUTSIDE THIS THREAD ***

[jerk]

Where are all the people that said the iPhone would be a failure and that nobody would buy one?

[c_rod44305]

Quote, originally posted by devnull »

Um, not really? All of the activation and plan selection is after your unboxing (which you have to photograph and post on flickr) in the privacy of you own home .. Unless you're going prepaid or need your hand held.

wait what? are you talking about just buying the phone outright?

[Texan_Brandon]

So can I go buy one, bring it home non-acitivated and toss it on eBay?

[Karma]

Correct - it gets activated through iTunes at your house.

[c_rod44305]

so you can buy it for the 2-year contract price of $500-$600, not activate it, and sell it on ebay and not be in contract and not have to pay the retail price on the phone?

[Karma]

Well if you don't have to activate it at the AT&T or Apple store then it certainly seems that way doesn't it?

[c_rod44305]

Quote, originally posted by Karma »

Well if you don't have to activate it at the AT&T or Apple store then it certainly seems that way doesn't it?

i guess so im still confused about this whole ordeal

[c_rod44305]

http://cgi.ebay.com/The-iPhone...wItem

[devnull]

Quote, originally posted by c_rod44305 »

so you can buy it for the 2-year contract price of $500-$600, not activate it, and sell it on ebay and not be in contract and not have to pay the retail price on the phone?

Something tells me that if his steveness feels comfortable enough to loosen up ~ 15k iphones for Apple employees within the first month, store availability will be juuuuuuusssssttt fine. Sure there are going to be some suckers and not-so-bright OCD kids with poor impulse control that buy a $1500 iPhone on ebay the first day of launch or something ... but the professional line sitters and scalpers waiting in line will be in for a rude awakening if the market is absolutly flooded.

Product launches these days have just got out of hand ... I remember waiting for the wii, most of the people in line had absolutly no interest in the device itself, or really knew what it was .. they were just going to flip it.

So, I've got this stack of PS3's here ... $300 a piece, who wants em

[Karma]

WSJ Interview with Steve Jobs

Quote »

On the eve of the iPhone's debut, The Wall Street Journal posts a Q&A with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson (paid subscription required). Update: Samples from a USAToday interview have also been included. The two talk about many topics ranging from reflecting on the iPhone launch to discussing the decision to stick with AT&T's EDGE, to speculating about how the iPhone will affect the companies. We post a highlight of some of the discussion here. Note that some responses have been paraphrased for brevity. WSJ: What do you both envision being added over time to the iPhone, in terms of access to ringtones through Cingular's (now rebranded AT&T) platform and maybe through some other manner, like turning your iTunes songs into ringtones? Mr. Jobs: As you may know, iTunes is now the number three distributor of music in the U.S., ahead of Amazon and Target and behind Best Buy and Wal-Mart, and obviously the largest online distributor of music in the world. Of course, you can play that music now on your iPhone. One might imagine a lot of things down the road. WSJ: Is one of those things offering music purchases and video purchases directly from the phone? Mr. Jobs: There's a lot of things you can imagine down the road. WSJ: [Editor's contraction: Why did you choose EDGE over 3G?] Mr. Jobs: [Paraphrased] Every AT&T Blackberry gets its mail over EDGE. EDGE is great for mail, and it works well for maps and a whole bunch of other stuff. Where you wish you had faster speed is…on a Web browser. It's good enough, but you wish it was a little faster. That's where sandwiching EDGE with Wi-Fi really makes sense because Wi-Fi is much faster than any 3G network. When we looked at 3G, the chipsets were not low-enough power for what we were looking for. They were not integrated enough, so they took up too much physical space. We cared a lot about battery life and we cared a lot about physical size. Down the road, I'm sure some of those tradeoffs will become more favorable towards 3G but as of now we think we made a pretty good doggone decision. WSJ: Did you make enough of these to meet demand? Mr. Jobs: [Paraphrased] We're building a fair number of them... we've built factories to build these things... but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it ain't enough. USAToday: What if you are sold out by Saturday? Will you let people buy them, and pick them up later? Mr. Jobs: No, you're going to have to come back in. When you start taking people's money and can't deliver the product, there are lots of legal issues. It's easier to disappoint people. USAToday: What about corporate e-mail? I understand that's an issue for many consumers, who may not be able to hook up to their company networks? Mr. Jobs: You'll be hearing more about this in the coming weeks. We have some pilots going with companies with names you'll recognize. This won't be a big issue. USAToday: [Editor's contraction: Now that you've done it with the iPhone, will you begin pre-announcing products more?] Mr. Jobs: [Paraphrased] I don't think we will. We did this because of the FCC certification process and because we had to have hundreds of people test it because it was going to be on a network. We had no choice but to do it the way we did it, and I'm glad we did it this way. It worked well, but most of the time, we will do what we normally do.

[mikemcnair]

Quote, originally posted by c_rod44305 »

so you can buy it for the out the door price of $500-$600,

they are all the same price. activated, not activated, in pieces, etc.

[Voski]

a doctor at my work is paying someone $20 bucks an hour plus money for food so the guy will stand in line for him. Maybe il get to see the phone on monday like omgz!

[DRGSR]

Quote, originally posted by theevilshiftkey »

But back to the price. Here are the high and low: $500 phone plus two years at 60/month= $1940 $600 phone plus two years at 100/month= $3000

That is the real kicker. No phone/mp3 player/video player is worth this kind of money. I don't care how great everybody thinks it is. This is a rip-off.

[Texan_Brandon]

yea, but can u buy it and flip it on ebay without being locked in for two years?

[jerk]

Quote, originally posted by Texan_Brandon »

yea, but can u buy it and flip it on ebay without being locked in for two years?

Yes. You pay your $500 and take the phone home. You can then sell it on eBay to some sucker for an inflated price (if you do this, I hope you end up stuck with it until it costs you $50 in credit card interest), but if you want to *use* the phone you have to activate it.

[mikemcnair]

YES. i though this was covered?????

[EpicVW]

Quote, originally posted by theevilshiftkey »

In a year or less the next gen iPhone will come out, or Motorola will come out with a clone that does 3G... and those people are either going to be stuck, or they'll pay huge cancelation fees to get the next big thing.

I would be fairly surprised if Apple doesn't have a plan set for that already. Upgrade program or something.

[GLS_VR6]

Quote, originally posted by Karma »

Jobs is giving an All Hands update to the entire Apple workforce tomorrow morning. He hasn't done that since 2001. This guy is really excited for this thing...

2001? These pep talks/rallys are LOT more common that you have been led to believe.

[Das Pike]

Apple says, "Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced."

So does this mean once it can't be charged anymore, you have to send it back and you're without a phone until it's returned?

[CMihalcheon]

Quote, originally posted by Das Pike »

Apple says, "Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced." So does this mean once it can't be charged anymore, you have to send it back and you're without a phone until it's returned?

Yeah probably. Same with the ipod. On the plus side apple is awesome at this. Fast shipping and quick turnaround time


Modified by CMihalcheon at 8:42 AM 6-29-2007

[DownShift]

Quote, originally posted by mikemcnair »

YES. i though this was covered?????

Seriously. I posted about the no contract thing tied to the phone (meaning you could flip it on ebay) at the top of page 2.

But it got looked over because everyone was still bitching about grps/3g/whatever

-Ash

[nemesis099]

Quote, originally posted by CMihalcheon »

Yeah probably. Same with the ipod. On the plus side apple is awesome at this. Fast shipping and quick turnaround time Modified by CMihalcheon at 8:42 AM 6-29-2007

A phone is a lot different then an Ipod when it comes to being without one for a day.

[-YZ-]

Paying $3000 on a 2yr iPhone may 'sound' ridiculous however most of us with blackberry's and what not pay $80 /month + with the unlimited data plans so the cost's are similar. For people that do not have an iPod and do not have a home phone, buying this phone would be practical. Buying it just to have it I don't think is that good of an idea simply because of it's starting price. Personally, I don't want to have my phone with me in the gym if I want to listen to music... especially not this thing.

[Das Pike]

My point exactly. Especially if people are going to be using this device as their main piece for email, messages, etc. Granted it's GSM so any smart consumer would just switch their SIM in an older phone for the time being. But to me the downtime due to shipping it back and waiting is unacceptable. The last time I remember people having to use bubble packs to send back mobile devices for replacements was during the Motorola Pager days. Apple should make the battery accessible for the 2nd gen.

[Karma]

I'd be surprised if the Apple stores don't start swapping batteries in house down the line when this becomes more of an issue.

[DownShift]

Quote, originally posted by Das Pike »

Granted it's GSM so any smart consumer would just switch their SIM in an older phone for the time being. But to me the downtime due to shipping it back and waiting is unacceptable. The last time I remember people having to use bubble packs to send back mobile devices for replacements was during the Motorola Pager days. Apple should make the battery accessible for the 2nd gen.

Yeah, shipping the phone back to Apple to just remove the SIM card might be a little annoying...if it even has a removable SIM card...

[juventuss]

Quote, originally posted by DownShift »

Yeah, shipping the phone back to Apple to just remove the SIM card might be a little annoying...if it even has a removable SIM card...

IT better damn have a removable SIM slot.
That would be stupid

[Karma]

Quote, originally posted by juventuss »

IT better damn have a removable SIM slot. That would be stupid

Relax people...

[EpicVW]

Quote, originally posted by Karma »

Relax people...

Interesting...I thought is was sealed inside. Well, here's to hoping someone figures out how to unlock it from Cingular!

[Entwerfer des Audis]

iPhone comes out today

I can't afford it

[Stock_B5.5]

Quote, originally posted by jerk »

Where are all the people that said the iPhone would be a failure and that nobody would buy one?

Because Apple/Jobs is so good at marketing and exploiting people's desire for status and needing to "belong", the iPhone will likely be quite successful.

I was naively a bit surprised that there were people camping outside a local Apple store.

I guess I'd hoped grown adults weren't as susceptible to the same urges as, say nerds lining up for weeks before Lord of the Rings was released in theaters.

But alas, there we were. People lining up to buy a phone that does little more than existing devices except for two big differences: an Apple logo and a high, high price tag.

Oh, and from a practicality standpoint (not just iPhone, but all large LCD enabled devices) I can't help but have flashbacks to being overseas with an associate who dropped his Palm Pilot, shattering the screen in an instant. Long way from home, no replacement. So I wonder how durable this thing is? And I wonder how many diva's will have heart attacks when they get a little scratch on the screen?


Modified by Stock_B5.5 at 12:13 PM 6-29-2007

[vdubjb]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Mayor John F. Street abruptly ended his wait in line for an iPhone Friday after a passer-by asked him about the city's murder rate.

Street, who showed up outside an AT&T store at 3:30 a.m., left shortly after a 22-year-old sporting a mohawk asked him, "How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?" The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site.

Street told the man: "I'm doing my job," the newspaper said.

Street had planned to stay in line for most of the day, waiting for Apple Inc.'s iPhone to go on sale at 6 p.m. When he left at 11:30 a.m., Street said he planned to return to his spot.

The mayor said he wants the new device because he loves trying out the latest technology. Apple's new handheld would allow him to work some of the day outside the office, he said.

"We don't have to be sitting in City Hall to be conducting city business," he said.

Philadelphia recently had its 200th slaying of the year. Its murder rate is up from last year, the deadliest in nearly a decade.

[mikemcnair]

Quote, originally posted by vdubjb »

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Mayor John F. Street abruptly ended his wait in line for an iPhone Friday after a passer-by asked him about the city's murder rate. Street, who showed up outside an AT&T store at 3:30 a.m., left shortly after a 22-year-old sporting a mohawk asked him, "How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?" The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site. Street told the man: "I'm doing my job," the newspaper said. Street had planned to stay in line for most of the day, waiting for Apple Inc.'s iPhone to go on sale at 6 p.m. When he left at 11:30 a.m., Street said he planned to return to his spot. The mayor said he wants the new device because he loves trying out the latest technology. Apple's new handheld would allow him to work some of the day outside the office, he said. "We don't have to be sitting in City Hall to be conducting city business," he said. Philadelphia recently had its 201st slaying of the year. Its murder rate is up from last year, the deadliest in nearly a decade.

201 was tuesday

[jerk]

Quote, originally posted by Stock_B5.5 »

Because Apple/Jobs is so good at marketing and exploiting people's desire for status and needing to "belong", the iPhone will likely be quite successful. I was naively a bit surprised that there were people camping outside a local Apple store.

The biggest surprise for me is that a lot of the people I've heard talking about the iPhone on the street aren't your stereotypical geeks. The excessive media coverage sure doesn't hurt, either.

[Entwerfer des Audis]

If you're looking for a geek, look no further.