Sam Oliver
The 8GB iPhone 3GS now costs $49, down from its original price of $99. The price change came quietly, without an announcement from Apple, just a few days after AT&T revealed it had reduced the price of the iPhone 3GS as well.
Last week, AT&T made it clear that the price of the iPhone 3GS sold in Apple's own channels, such as its retail and online stores, were determined by Apple itself, suggesting the $50 price cut was solely AT&T's doing. At the time, Apple's official iPhone site still offered the 8GB iPhone 3GS for $99.
The current-generation iPhone 4 models still carry the same price with a two-year AT&T contract. The 16GB model sells for $199, while the high-end 32GB model has a price of $299.
AT&T's chief rival, Verizon, is widely expected to announce on Tuesday that it will carry a CDMA version of the iPhone in just a matter of weeks. While reports have said Verizon will offer the iPhone 4, no mention has been made of the iPhone 3GS, first released in 2009. If Verizon's deal is only for the iPhone 4, the $49 iPhone 3GS could remain an AT&T exclusive.
Starting with the launch of the iPhone 3GS in 2009, Apple began selling the previous year's model with a two-year AT&T contract in the U.S. for $99. While the initial $99 handset from Apple was the iPhone 3G, last year that was upgraded to the 8GB iPhone 3GS when the iPhone 4 launched.
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
Andrew O'Hara
20 Comments
Sure, Verizon will start rolling out its 3G GSM network next week to desperately match at&t?s 3GS deal...
Last time I checked "the high-end 32GB model" was $299, not $399.
And so the effect of fair competition begins
BTW I totally understand why SJ had to do what he did initially to even get the iPhone into the market. But now I welcome the opening up of the US market for many reasons. Not least of which is AAPL.
Please, please, PLEASE...
If the VeriPhone is released on Tuesday, this will be two birds with one stone.
Finally shutting up the VeriPhone people while simultaneously shutting up the iPhone nano crowd (remember them? *shudder* I certainly do. Nonsense.).
Yeah, and the customer is still getting screwed. The marginal cost to ATT to add and sustain another wireless customer is virtually nothing. We consumers are a bunch of saps.