Filed under: iPhone
iPhone Purchase Strategies
So what's the best way for you to buy an iPhone? Will you camp out overnight? Or aim yourself towards a metropolitan center with its greater number of on-hand units? Or perhaps you'll be heading towards the suburbs to snag an iPhone from a store less likely to be hounded by campers? Here are a few points you might want to keep in mind.
Buying an iPhone takes time. If you've ever purchased a cell phone, you know that between saying "I want it" to finishing ringing it up and working out the paperwork can take thirty or forty minutes. I called around to a few cell phone stores and most agreed that the quickest they could process someone through would probably be about 15-20 minutes--and that would be pushing it just a wee bit. I was told to bring my current account number and a statement from my current cell phone provider if I wanted to transfer service. However, several of the salesmen said they don't always keep the proper equipment on-hand for working with the SIM card stuff so you might have to wait until things calm down to finish setting that up.
iPhones won't go on sale until the evening. Many stores have already put up signs to this effect. For my local AT&T store, they will close at 4:00 on the 29th and reopen at 6:00 PM. The guy at my store said they expected a line that would go about 2 blocks in length. You may want to call during the day and see how long the line is getting before making the decision to start camping out. And, while each store agreed that the store phones would be working during the 2 hour time out, they all suggested that getting someone to pick up the phone and answer your call might be a problem.
Restocking supplies are not expected soon. After the initial shipments sell out (which pretty much all the salesmen I spoke to assumed was a given), the stores do not expect new stocks to show immediately (one guy said not for up for at least a month, but I'm pretty sure he was pulling that information out of his...um...imagination). So waiting until the next day may not be an option for you. All iPhones are on auto-restock, so stores will basically request more automatically after they sell out.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
drew said 6:35PM on 6-21-2007
Question...since Engadget came out with an iPhone-less RSS feed, can you guys whip up an Erica-less one? All this useless blog crap is clogging up my feedreader!
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charles said 6:59PM on 6-21-2007
very good post. I doubt 90% of the people who want an Iphone will consider this info. Seems obvious but very easily over-looked.
Thank you for this.
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Erica Sadun said 6:35PM on 6-21-2007
Drew:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=dOgBKkcg3BGHw5sml7okhQ
Best regards -- Erica
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jack said 6:49PM on 6-21-2007
Why do you assume the service sign-up will take place in the store? Especially considering the expected lines and crowds, I've long imagined that buying an iPhone is a simple "Here's your 600 bucks" / "Here's your box" transaction: one minute tops (hours spent in line notwithstanding). How else could they sell iPhones at Apple stores as well as AT&T ones? Why else would you need an iTunes Store account, as stated on the "Get Ready for iPhone" page at apple.com? "To set up your iPhone, you'll need an account with Apple's iTunes Store" it says. Picking your plan with an iTS-like interface will be a good way to kill time while your iPhone does what every single other iPod ever has always done for the first few hours of its unboxed life: sit in a dock connected to your computer, charging and getting content copied to it...
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kez said 6:58PM on 6-21-2007
I enjoyed the post. Like Charles stated above, the info should be obvious but in a situation like this obvious becomes overlooked. Great tips!
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shon Dempsey said 7:23PM on 6-21-2007
seems like a very relevant and informational post to me...
Thanks.
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DrWho said 8:24PM on 6-21-2007
Can one also use yahoo! pipes to remove all comments from people complaining about your blog entries clogging up their 'feed readers'?
No? shame.
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shon Dempsey said 7:29PM on 6-21-2007
@ Jack,
That would be sweet indeed. However, very unlikely. I was a Cingular assistant manager (sales rep before that, and at a corporate owned store), and activating your phone isnt that simple. Especially when porting your number from a different provider. Cingy has very custom software (and web-based) that provisions everything as necissary.. and sometimes that doesnt work. I'd even expect there to be PLENTY of system problems that night for massive server requests and processes. Im sure its going to be unlike anything else their internal network will ever encounter again. 40mins per person is optimistic. Dont be suprised if your rep ends up pulling out carbon copy manual contracts either.... more time consuming!
However, if you're upgrading (like me), and all systems are go, the process should only take 10-15 mins. Just dont expect to go in, drop your cash, and walk out with your phone. Chances are your iPhone will need to be completely charged before you can tinker with it as well!
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SunGod said 8:07PM on 6-21-2007
I'm 50/50 on if I am going to keep it or sell it on eBay for 800+. Wait a month, then get it, with the 300 extra in my pocket.
If I eBay it, I'll just use the line, I'm buying the gift for a friend B-Day present or what not.
Doesn't really matter though, may flip a coin to see. I wonder what the AT&T staff will say when you say that, haha. ;-)
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toratora said 8:14PM on 6-21-2007
Does anyone know if apple.com, or even the att online store will be selling them?
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jason said 9:10PM on 6-21-2007
all these posts keep talking about going to an att store, are they still selling them at apple stores?
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Dan said 10:05PM on 6-21-2007
drew, seriously, take a breath. You do realize that Erica is real human being, not a computer program?
Do you talk to people like that in person?
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Ben the Dog said 11:09PM on 6-21-2007
#1 - you are a rude little scrote, aren't you?
Good tips Erica - when the iPhone comes to Hong Kong I'm guessing it'll be unlocked and expensive, but available anywhere (for some reason phone locking here is hardly ever donw, which is awesome).
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sarah said 11:05PM on 11-18-2008
I will buy and iphone on the 29th. When I called and spoke with an ATT rep this afternoon, she said I could switch from Verizon, (I'm on a month to month with them) get 2 lines, 2000 minutes for $109. mo. Add $40 for "unlimited" data service for the iphone.
We don't know how unlimited it really is, Verizon has small print stating that you can only use 5 GB per month!
Anyway, if I had signed up this afternoon, I would walk into the Apple store with my SIM card and be good to go. For $50 after mail-in rebate and $60 mo. I can also get a Express34 broadband card for my new macbook pro. I need to talk to my husband about this, he is the tech guy, but I LOVE this new phone!!
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fartman said 10:06AM on 6-22-2007
Shon, I agree with Jack.
As anyone who has had to go to a cellular store and buy a phone, get a plan and then get the phone activated, this usually turns out to be a 45 minute to an hour ordeal. All the while, people are waiting behind you in frustration. Now, can you imagine this same process when dealing with all the hoopla over the iPhone? Major mess! I don't believe Apple nor AT&T would want this.
Apple and AT&T are telling (via their emails sent out to people opting to get info on the iPhone) that you will need an iTunes account. But if you look at the language, it sounds like they are saying you will need your iTunes name and password at time of "purchase" or at least on "activation" and not just for syncing your contacts, calendars, etc. This is what they said in their email:
"To set up your iPhone, you’ll need an account with Apple’s iTunes Store. If you already have an iTunes account, make sure you know your account name and password. If you don’t have an account, you should set one up now to save time later."
So this is what I predict will happen. I think that activation will actually happen through the iTunes store. I think that a user will end up selecting his or her own data and voice plan via iTunes, just like any othe purchase. You connect your iPhone, it starts up iTunes, the iTunes store comes up and you buy your plan throught it. This way, both the At&T stores as well as all the Apple stores can get people activated. You could get it activated there at the store or at a later time. What will probably happen is that you will end up signing a general contract, credit check, etc. - but the actual selection of plans and so forth will have to be done via iTunes. This way, you could also opt out to do the actual "activation" of the phone until you get home and get a chance to read all the fine print before any purchase.
I know that you had worked at Cingular before, but this is Apple we are talking about. They have had control over this thing since the beginning (Advertising, Marketing, Design, Technology, etc.). I think this will be another first in the cell phone experience. Selecting and buying your plan online. Now that would be something.
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djfred said 11:04AM on 6-22-2007
I agree with fartman. I don't think this is going to be like anything Cingular/ATT has done prior to this and his scenario sounds as plausible as anything I've heard to date. Let's hope so because all of my previous experiences with Cingular/ATT were simply horrific -to the extent that I ran back to T-Mobile before the month was out and threatened to sue to break the contract. In their defense it was right around the time of the initial merger admittely not the best framework in which to judge a company. I'm sure they've worked out the kinks by now.
One thing that I haven't seen come up in these strategy planning posts that I'm curious about is the role of the Apple online store. I know I read someplace they'll be selling them there.
Why wouldn't that be a good way to procure a godphone without having to wait in line for hours? I can wait a day or 2 for it to ship.
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shon Dempsey said 2:22PM on 6-22-2007
You could very well be right fartman. In fact, id be ecstatic if thats the way it goes down.
However, I think there are some complications you might be overlooking. My senario is one of those complications. Im not a new at&t customer. I'm going to be upgrading. Im also currently on a family plan. If i have to leave the family plan for the iPhone plan some additional provisioning needs to be done with my other line. I dont think thats something that can happen via iTunes. There are far too many scenarios that could screw the process up.
Number Porting? yeah there is another one im sure isnt possible via iTunes.
But I HOPE I'm wrong.
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iGO said 2:08PM on 6-23-2007
EVERYONE SHOULD NOTE: The ONLY requirement detailed anywhere to date, is that the iPhone requires an iTunes account. I predict that the iPhone will sold and delivered in a very efficient, easy, customer-friendly manner. All indications are pointing to this. 1)You walk into Apple (store or online) or AT&T and buy the phone. Period. 2) You bring it home and Sync it to your iTunes account, at which time you will be prompted that you need to have an iTunes account if you don't already have one. Period. 3) If you have a phone/data service plan, because you've taken the time to sign the contracts and agree to pay for said level of service from the service provider AT&T, to support the Phone/Data functionality, your iTunes account will know it and the phone will work. Period. It has to be this way. If some time down the road, you refuse to pay your monthly phone bill, your phone service will be terminated by AT&T and you will have a beautiful, very fancy, latest and greatest "Multi-Touch" $500(4GB) or $600(8GB) iPod. It's obvious to me and you will all see this is exactly what will happen next Friday night.
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littlejoefro said 8:55PM on 6-29-2007
What you're all missing is the easily availably information that you activate through iTunes AT HOME. At the stores, all you do is pay for the phone and leave. The activation happens within iTunes after you hook the iPhone up to your computer, exactly like an iPod. The info was available all over tech sites and podcasts as well as through a video on the Apple web site earlier this week.
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