Filed under: Retail, Deals, iPhone
iPhone now available as refurb
Did you want to get onto the iPhone train but the $500 pricetag was holding you back? You can now pick up an iPhone for just $399 at the Apple store for the 4GB model. (The 8GB runs $499). The deal includes free shipping, a one-year limited warranty and all the normal iPhone telephone support.
If you're looking to save money on phone plans, it's also a lot easier to do now than it was a month and a half ago: You can use third party programs to activate your iPhone for use without signing up for a phone plan. Other utilities allow you to use prepaid GoPhone cards or other existing AT&T accounts for your phone service. And, of course, you can sign up for the otherwise unadvertised contract-free iPhone GoPhone service at a slightly reduced monthly rate.
Thanks to Jason Kasprzak
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Shannin said 10:03AM on 8-20-2007
if only i would have waited a couple more months. :S
also since this is an erica post, if i jail break my phone is it going to erase all my contacts and voicemails and all that? if it does will that auto backups put it back on my phone?
P.S. is there anyway to change your password? i hate having to check the email all the time because i cant remember the line of letters and numbers.
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Randy said 11:02AM on 8-20-2007
So does this mean that iPhones sent back for repair will now be replaced with refurbs instead of new units. To date others have reported that their iPhones were replaced with new units when sent in to Apple for repair. My replacement iPhone was just sent out this Sat and I will receive it today. Think it's a refurb or new?
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gldfsh419 said 11:06AM on 8-20-2007
I wondered when that would happen... yippee! I've been waiting to buy anyway, this is just one less obstacle (actually, about 100 less obstacles). :-)
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Erica Sadun said 11:08AM on 8-20-2007
Refurb/repair: I have no idea
Jailbreaking: Won't hurt your data. I've jailbreaked/restored/etc a billion times and my data is just fine.
Email password: put it into email settings Just set it & forget it as Saint Ron Popeil tells us
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BeyondtheTech said 11:22AM on 8-20-2007
You forgot to mention, of course, that if you can get a hold of someone to program a TurboSIM card for you, you can save yourself from joining AT&T Mobility altogether and use your current T-Mobile service, or whatever, saving possible activation and early termination fees.
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Geoff said 11:40AM on 8-20-2007
Erica,
I believe Shannin was asking about changing the password we use to comment on Weblogs, Inc. sites to something more memorable than the random string of characters assigned to us when we first commented (such as e88f746cef).
I too despise going to my e-mail to find my password every time I need to comment ... made worse by the fact that your comment form will not remember the password.
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jps said 11:52AM on 8-20-2007
Hells yes; I've been waiting for this. All my major apple purchases of the past 6 years have been either refurbs or scratch n' dents and I've never had a reason to complain.
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Jason said 12:12PM on 8-20-2007
@BeyondtheTech
I've been following the discussion at Bladox regarding the TurboSIM "unlocking" ... and it seems pretty promising for $80.00.
Is anyone OFFERING a "I'll program your TurboSIM" service yet?
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miguel said 12:23PM on 8-20-2007
i just got my card out and ordered one :->
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SR said 12:25PM on 8-20-2007
The read link on this page takes you to the apple store and I tried to check the number of refurbished iphones they have in stock. It will allow you to purchase upto 999 for each item and so it shows 999 4gb & 999 8gb iphones in stock and ready to ship in 1-3 business days. So that makes about 2000 phones that are returned either because they are not working or the users did not like them. What ever the reason there are a lot of iphones that can save you 100 bucks.
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JohnPQ said 12:46PM on 8-20-2007
I hate to say it, but this what the prices should be for new units.
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JH said 4:09PM on 8-20-2007
I agree with JohnPQ. The prices are way too high from the start. You should check out iPhailure.com for some good alternative views on the iPhone
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newsray said 4:14PM on 8-20-2007
"I hate to say it, but this what the prices should be for new units."
By "should" do you mean what you want to pay?
It appears that there are several hundred thousand people who collectively have paid Apple the current prices who don't agree with your "should." You are saying that Apple "should" have left more than $20M on the table?
Supply and demand doesn't dictate that the current price will be what _you_ want to pay. For some items, like the iPhone, you won't want to pay the current asking price, but others will.
For other items, you would be willing to pay more than the current price. Do you go around saying that those items should be priced $100 more?
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Jersey said 4:15PM on 8-20-2007
Yeah, this kind of pisses me off a bit.
I could see $50 off for refurbs, but $100? Makes me fell like I've been had. Yes, I've had the phone since the day it was released, but still ...
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Scott said 6:27AM on 8-21-2007
My bet is that these are new phones and this is another Apple marketing scheme. I would bet that after the initial sale of IPhones, Apple still has many, many IPhones for sale. This is just one way for Apple to Mark them down without OFFICIALLY marking them down. If ya know what I mean.
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Ashley said 9:36AM on 8-21-2007
Marketing scheme, refurbished or brand new, I ordered one of these babies.
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crobrien said 12:04PM on 8-21-2007
i'm with ashley on this one... my 8 gig refurb is in the mail :)
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George said 1:36PM on 8-21-2007
i agree with scott (in hope he is right) i cant stop cheasin cause i have waited till school startes to get the phone so i will not blow my money on it until i saw it was worth it but at 499 for a 8gb and a even more tempting 399 for a 4gb in my mind the iphone has left the iphone vs ps3 status and is know on iphone vs. xbox 360 and since the iphone does not overheat or get a extream pink eye i am happy to say iphone wins i am buying mines thursday.
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Iscariote said 11:48AM on 8-23-2007
I ordered one of these yesterday and got it this morning. It came in a white refurbished box, not a new black iPhone box, so I think it might actually be refurbished.
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Nick said 11:35AM on 8-26-2007
Well, the $100 price drop on the refurbished units worked because I couldn't resist and have now bought one and switched to AT&T.
No matter what, Apple doesn't lose a dime on these phones because even though they make a $100 less than they would selling them full price and new, they get a cut of the revenue of people like myself who buy one and sign up with AT&T. Add to that the fact that they got some good words said about them in the first weeks as people got easy replacements for broken phones which are now being resold.
It's all a conspiracy...
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