AT&T Eligibility at Apple Stores, International iPhone 3G Shortages Expected
AppleInsider provides some additional notes about the iPhone 3G launch on Friday at U.S. Apple Retail stores and offers some clarity to one purchasing scenario.
According to their sources, current non-iPhone AT&T customers can go to Apple Retail stores and purchase the iPhone 3G and will be billed appropriately. The confusion arose from the subsidy surrounding the iPhone 3G and whether or not Apple would be able to tell if current AT&T customers "qualified" for the lower pricing. Existing iPhone customers and individuals new to AT&T automatically qualify for the $199/$299 subsidized iPhone 3G pricing. However, individuals who are current AT&T customers but do not own an iPhone must be "upgrade eligible" to purchase at the discounted prices. AT&T has posted walkthrough videos that explains the different scenarios.
Apparently, Apple's checkout system does access AT&T's database, but only at time of checkout. So if you are unsure of your upgrade eligibility, you should contact AT&T or log into your online account to check. As a result, the only group of individuals who need to specifically go to the AT&T stores are business/corporate customers.
Meanwhile, customers in Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. may see short supplies of the iPhone 3G. Smarthouse.com.au claims that the first iPhone 3G shipments to those carriers will be less than 25,000 units each. The stock is described by one executive as "next to nothing" with expectations that they will be "snapped up within minutes."
Similarly, the U.K.'s O2 expects only "a couple of dozen" iPhones for each of their O2 and Carphone Warehouse locations on launch day. In fact, no stock at all of the white 16GB iPhone is expected in the U.K. at first.
Other Notes about the iPhone 3G and Launch:
- "Push" has been turned on in .Mac/Me.com and now works for those who have iPhone 2.0 firmware.
- The shipping iPhone 3G Firmware build (5A345) is the same as the 2.0 Beta 8 Firmware in the hands of developers
- 5th Avenue Apple Store will close at midnight July 10th and reopen at 8am July 11th.
- First guy is in line in New Zealand
- New Zealand customers are unhappy about pricing plans from Vodafone. (Petition)
- Mexico rate plans also came out. Customers there are also quite unhappy.
- Australia: Optus World store at 280 George Street Sydney will open 12.00am on July 11.
- Australia: Vodafone briefly posted their rate plans but then pulled them down.
- Meetups with other MacRumors readers are being organized: click here
Popular Stories
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones.
Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.
Notification Summary Changes
Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries
Apple Intelligence...
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner.
Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages.
Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far.
Apple Intelligence for Siri
Siri ...
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device.
The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
The upcoming iPhone 17 models that Apple plans to release this year will not feature a smaller Dynamic Island, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today.
On social media, he said that he is expecting the size of the Dynamic Island to remain "largely unchanged" across the iPhone 17 lineup. His statement is contrary to prior rumors that we've heard about planned changes for the iPhone 17 models.
...
Apple's retail stores will be rolling out "merchandise/floor marketing updates" next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman did not explicitly say if the store updates are related to any upcoming product announcements, but he did mention that next week is around the time that Apple rolls out its annual Black Unity watch band for the Apple Watch.
In each of the past four years, ...
It's also time for Apple's first product announcement of the year.
Last year, Apple said it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and the wireless earbuds are expected to launch very soon.
Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code
In his Power On newsletter last weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the...
