iPhone 3G Shortage Exaggerated
Apple Store is reporting that there are, in fact, iPhone 3G units out there in California tonight.
Not feeling like a drive up to Sacramento just to get the 16GB Black version though. Emeryville has them too. Valley Fair apparently only has white.
Just found out from AT&T the convoluted story about qualifying for the upgrade. Here is the deal:
- AT&T doesn’t like giving out deep phone discounts too often. So they count months from the last “discount” you got from them. For me, that’s April 2007, so I have to wait until December (21 months) to get another discount.
- Original iPhone users did not get a discount on their phone. So AT&T is happy to give them one now, in exchange for re-upping into a 2 year contract.
So, ironically, Carolyn, who has an original iPhone, qualifies for the upgrade. I, however, with the Blackberry, can’t qualify until December 2008. Not quite the strategy you’d want to take if your goal was displacing competitors.
Interestingly, I confirmed with AT&T that Carolyn can upgrade to the iPhone 3G, activate, then give me the iPhone 3G, activate it on my account, and then re-activate her old iPhone.
Worth it? Not sure. But probably… 
Let’s hope I get a new iPhone before my vacation in August.
