As all humans across the planet are now aware, there’s a $199 3G iPhone (with GPS) available come June 11th. John Biggs observes, that’s with a 2-year contract, but I don’t really feel that makes a difference since most typical consumers are re-upping contracts as they buy phones anyway. $199 is an amazing price point, one sure to help get Apple to hit their previously-hard-to-reach volume numbers. Let’s look at what you get for $199 now:
- Arguably the best phone on the market, at a very competitive price to all “trendy” phones, making it affordable to non-professionals alike.
- A GPS device.
- A 3G mobile Internet + email device.
- An 8GB MP3 and video player.
- Access to a fairly big supply music, movies/TV shows, and now games and other applications.
All in all, not too shabby. I’m still not running out to buy one (no Verizon, still want a keyboard, etc.), but I’m more tempted than ever. It’s exactly the right price point to move large volumes of phones (here you can compare it to other top-priced AT&T phones. Yes, that IS a RAZR in the mix, wow!). It’s the same price as a Treo (shudder). Incidentally, looking back a year I was about half-right on my G1 and G2 phone predictions. Oh well, live and learn.
After some random, informal, and ridiculously unscientific polling, my hunch is a lot of first-generation iPhone users are going to wait until about 12:03am on the 11th to buy the 3G iPhone. But what are they gonna do with the old ones?
Can’t really resell em (unless they’re unlocked) for any real value. Again, I don’t view the 2-year contract as any kind of deterrent, and therefore it won’t help spur sales at near price points ($179, $149, even $99). They’re still listed above $300 on eBay, but that will definitely change in the near future. My hunch is the price settles in somewhere right around $80. This makes an all-in early adopter program run a grand total of $718 ($599 + $199 – $80), not to mention the $100 iStore coupon.