True Cost To Buy An iPhone 4
If you buy the iPhone 4 when it comes out tomorrow in stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy you can expect to pay a pretty large price, if you can even find one that hasn't already been purchased. What some people forget though, is that the price to buy an iPhone 4 doesn't just get you upfront for the phone, but the whole time you use it too.
Upfront Purchase Price for iPhone 4
$200 (16GB) / $300 (32GB)
This is what you can expect to pay if you have never been a customer of AT&T before and are getting a new contract. If you already had an iPhone and the contract happens to expire by the end of this year(pretty much only the iPhone 3G) then you may also qualify to get the $200 price. If you have a really crazy expensive contract on a monthly basis and you want to get this phone, AT&T will probably let you do it at this price also, but they don't tell you that upfront.
$400 (16GB) / $500 (32GB)
This is what you can expect to pay, pretty much if you have an iPhone 3GS. The deal on this price line is that if you purchased your iPhone and received your two-year contract, and that contract won't be up until after December of this year, then in order to buy the iPhone 4, you will pay an extra $200. Being that if you signed a 2 year contract the day the iPhone 3GS came out, you would still fall into this category and thus pay the extra money to get the phone.
$600 (16GB) / $700 (32GB)
This is what you can expect to pay if you really hate contracts and do not want to be locked into one and risk having to pay an early termination fee if you cancel over the next two years. This really is not going to save you all that much anyway since the difference you would save for the early termination fee you would pay is pretty much equivalent to the extra money you pay upfront. Basically if you want to use anyone other than AT&T over the next two years for service(maybe Verizon at some point although AT&T is the only one still now), then you are either going to pay them for it now, or later, but they are going to get some money from you if you don't use them. Come to think of it, AT&T is starting to sound like the mafia huh?
As always, you will want to contact AT&T to make sure of which pricing plan you will definitely qualify for, but these are definitely what you can expect upfront.
Costs of Service for iPhone 4
Talk-Time Minutes
Now is where the real costs to buy iPhone 4's come in. The monthly service plans. Basically, you choose how many minutes you want each month for a certain monthly price:
- $40 - 450 minutes with 5,000 Night and Weekend minutes
- $60 - 900 minutes with unlimited Night and Weekend minutes
- $70 - Unlimited minutes
**All plans come with rollover minutes included so your unused minutes on your plan do not go to waste**
Internet Data Use
Remember when it was $30 for unlimited internet usage? Well if you already have that on your coverage plan you can keep it, but if you are just signing up there will be no more 'unlimited' option available. You will need to choose from two new less expensive up front options, but they are not unlimited so you more than likely will end up going over your limit here and there and paying some extra money, so watch out for this.
Wireless Tethering
$20 - This will be the montly fee to use the wireless tethering feature on the new iPhone 4. Wireless tethering will allow you to use your iPhone 4 as a way to connect devices like your laptop to the internet using the phone's signal. A pretty cool feature, but the extra $20 bucks a month is kind of annoying.
Conclusion
So, to buy an iPhone 4 you have to make sure that you keep in mind that even after you pay the hefty upfront costs, you will continue to also carry some pretty hefty monthly payments to use all the new functions of the phone. The iPhone 4 will definitely be a hot commodity for the next few months after its release, and these prices may come down slightly as they usually do within the first 3-6 months on the market, but whether you wait till then, or go ahead and buy your iPhone 4 upon its release June 24th, 2010, there is a pretty good chance that you are going to absolutely love it!
