"Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9A986A41A5FECnoonehomecom@208.49.80.253...
> Todd Allcock <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote in
> news:fvtvkr$8pd$1@aioe.org:
>
>> An angry mob of disgruntled current iPhone owners storming AT&T stores
>> when AT&T drops the price of 1st-gen iPhones to $99 with 2-year
>> contract to make way for the new model? ;-)
>>
>>
>> (Just kidding!)
>>
>>
>>
>
> I don't think this is a joke. The new iPhone is only $199 trying to move
> them. It would make sense to sell the warehouses full of 2G obsoletes at
> $99, or even less.

The whole "$199 for 3G iPhone" is a ridiculous internet rumor. I VERY much
doubt AT&T is going to sell it for that. Perhaps the _current_ iPhone will
dip to $199 when the new 3G version comes out, but for all the iPhone hype,
why would they sell it for the same or less than, say, a Tilt, when past
experience shows them if they make enough noise about it before launch, they
can charge whatever they like and watch the sucke.. er, um, lemmin.., ah,
um, "buyers" line up.

A low-ball price on the new iPhone greatly devalues both it, and the 2G
version, in one fell swoop, and frankly, is a very un-Apple-like strategy.
Look at the iPod line, for example- while todays iPods are far more featured
than prior models, they sell for the same price as older units did. So a
"Nano", which today has far more memory and plays video, is still a $150-200
piece, just like the first was Nano was years ago.

A current model iPhone, at least in the US, is going to be "$400" or so,
regardless because that's the current high-end that phones command in the
US, and Apple isn't going to let it become a $200 phone like a Blackberry or
WinMo phone.

Just my opinion, of course, so take it for what it's worth...

> For the price the vendors are going to charge for the simplest 3rd party
> programs, they oughta give the damned things away, much like printers
> just to sell you jet ink!

Again, the iPod had been very successful with a "pay me now AND pay me
later" hardware/iTunes strategy, so why would Apple rock that boat?