iPhone 3G Pay As You Go pricing announced?
AppleInsider reports on O2’s apparent announcement of its much-anticipated Pay-As-You-Go pricing plans for the forthcoming iPhone 3G, although at the time of writing it seems details have disappeared from the network’s website.
According to the usually-very-reliable news site, the next-generation handset will retail without a monthly call plan and minimum contract for £299.99 for the 8GB model, and £359.99 for the 16GB model.
In keeping with the often-confusing array of ‘add-on’ deals for those who top-up regularly, Pay-As-You-Go iPhone customers will be able to take advantage of various bonus features including free minutes and texts, as well as unlimited data for an initial 6 month period before being required to top-up by an additional amount per month to maintain unlimited data usage.
Read the full details at AppleInsider, and hopefully O2 will reinstate this information on its site asap.
Pay-as-you-go may be only option in Apple retail stores
AppleInsider and Macworld UK both pick up on reports that Apple may be forced to sell the new iPhone 3G in-store on a pay-as-you-go only basis, due to the retail chain’s stores and staff not currently being able to process in-store activations for a credit contract associated with Pay Monthly schemes.
The problem stems from the fact that the previous iteration of the iPhone could be activated at home via iTunes, meaning no credit-check was required at the point of sale. Of course this meant some unhappy customers who got their shiny toy home only to find that they were refused a contract - in the UK, O2 countered this by making certain customers put down a £100 deposit at the point of activation, reimbursed after 3 months of perfect bill-paying. It also meant that the handsets left the store with no guarantee of being legally activated, leaving open the possibility (nay, probability?!) they would be unlocked and either used on another carrier, or sold on to customers not wishing to contract for min. 18 months or even in countries where the handset was not yet supported.
To combat both, Apple has changes its policy (seemingly worldwide) to insist that customers MUST activate in-store, at the point of sale. However as noted above, in something of an oversight, Apple stores are not yet prepped for this process.
The upshot is that if the iPhone 3G went on sale tomorrow, Apple couldn’t offer in-store activation, and would instead have to offer the phone for purchase outright, at an expected retail price of around £350. O2 and Carphone Warehouse, official partners in the UK, are of course fully kitted out to process activations and so will be offering the iPhone 3G on the Pay Monthly tariffs previously announced.
According to an O2 statement, Apple and O2 are working together to make Apple’s retail stores activation-ready as soon as possible - but whether that will be before July 11th remains to be seen.