New York (NY) – AT&T, the exclusive service provider for the iPhone, is offering a trade-up option to late purchasers of the current version. Anyone buying a 1st-Gen iPhone on or after May 27th can exchange it for a 3G iPhone from July 11th through August 1st. Buyers will be refunded the price difference minus a 10% restocking fee.
Some people were plenty mad after Steve Jobs announced the cheaper 3G iPhone during Monday’s WWDC keynote address. The 8GB version will sell for $199 while the 16GB model retails for $299. Since the current generation iPhones are about twice as much, you can see how late buyers could be a little ticked off.
But we think their anger was a bit overblown because Apple has a history of taking care of its iPhone customers. Apple slashed the price of the iPhone by $200 just a few months after it launched. While there was short-lived outrage amongst early adopters, Apple made nice by offering by offering a $100 store credit to those buyers.
Of course in this instance it isn’t Apple doing the refunding, it will be AT&T, but we can’t help but wonder if there was a little behind the scenes arm twisting on this one.
Some people were plenty mad after Steve Jobs announced the cheaper 3G iPhone during Monday’s WWDC keynote address. The 8GB version will sell for $199 while the 16GB model retails for $299. Since the current generation iPhones are about twice as much, you can see how late buyers could be a little ticked off.
But we think their anger was a bit overblown because Apple has a history of taking care of its iPhone customers. Apple slashed the price of the iPhone by $200 just a few months after it launched. While there was short-lived outrage amongst early adopters, Apple made nice by offering by offering a $100 store credit to those buyers.
Of course in this instance it isn’t Apple doing the refunding, it will be AT&T, but we can’t help but wonder if there was a little behind the scenes arm twisting on this one.