Apple limits buyers to two iPhones
Only one per buyer at AT&T stores
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When Apple's iPhone goes on sale tomorrow evening, buyers will only be allowed to take home two of the "revolutionary" mobile telephones, the Mac maker said today. That's twice as many as AT&T, the only carrier offering the iPhone for the immediate future, will allow.
The iPhone doesn't go on sale until 6pm US local time, so expect the first purchasers to get their mitts on the mobile in Apple and AT&T's east coast store - a queue has already begun to form outside the New York Apple Store, with the first guy getting into line this past Monday.
Apple said it was keeping its 194 shops open until midnight to meet demand. AT&T outlets take the total number of sites that will be selling the iPhone tomorrow to around 2000.
Apple's iPhone: don't take more than two...
Of course, what we don't know is how many iPhones will be available to buy tomorrow. It has been claimed by a variety of sites that the devices have already been brought into the shops
The iPhone costs $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB version. Buyers need a two-year contract, with three basic plans on offer: $60 a month for 450 minutes' talk time, $80 a month for 900 minutes and $100 for 1350 minutes. All three include unlimited data usage and 200 text messages a month.
In addition, there's a one-off "activation fee" of $36, which can be paid using iTunes - a move presumably intended to get successful iPhone purchasers out of the shops and back home as soon as possible.
COMMENTS
Re: iPhone is the new PS3?
"That's EXACTLY what people said about the Playstation 3..."
Sony don't have the cachet nowadays that Apple have. The halcyon days of the "Playstation generation" have passed, so the only people really comfortable with the price of the PS3 are either audio-video afficiandos, or Sony fanbois. That being said, the PS3 is still the cheapest way of getting a Bluray player - specs wise you get a lot for your money.
"Fact is a lot of people dont care about all that, the killer app for a phone is voice and text."
Are the sort of people who "only care about voice and text" likely to spend $599 on a phone? The iPhone is pitched at the smartphone crowd, and whilst it's likely there will be some people who buy it sight-unseen simply off the back of the Apple branding, the fact remains its entering a market that is already well-established.
It's important not to underestimate the relevance of provider either. Service providers are as important as the phone itself, and in the case of the iPhone they have no choice in this. If they can't use, won't use, hate AT&T, etc then they're screwed as far as "being happy" with the iPhone.
iPhone is the new PS3?
iPhone would have been revolutionary if Apple had insisted on selling it unlocked. That would have completely pulled the rug from under the phone network operators, brought Apple much bigger sales, and opened up the American sim-free market to other phone makers too.
At the moment, most Americans don't seem to realise that their phones have been deliberately crippled by the networks. Apple could have educated them.
A missed chance, Steve Jobs, a missed chance.
"Apple can charge pretty much any price for this phone for the first few months, there will be a steady stream of people for whom price is irrelevant"
That's EXACTLY what people said about the Playstation 3...
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