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iPO Reports - What To Do with That iPhone 2G on July 11

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 10:00 AM - by

Many of the millions of iPhone 2G users are looking forward to buying the iPhone 3G on July 11 and have been thinking about what to do with their old iPhone. AT&T has provided some answers.

AT&T has announced that when the new iPhone 3G ships on July 11, current iPhone customers will be able to buy a new iPhone 3G for US$199 (8 GB) and start a new two year contract. However, some users may already be thinking about what can be done with that old iPhone 2G. iPO spoke with Mark Siegel, AT&T's spokesperson about that.

Option #1. Keep the old iPhone 2G as a video player/iPod, Wi-Fi enabled device but without the ability to make EDGE voice calls.

Option #2. Sell the old iPhone after the new one has been activated. However, one should be aware that it's very hard to erase personal information from the NAND Flash memory in an iPhone, so selling it to a stranger could pose privacy problems.

Option #3. Take the old iPhone in and have both phones rolled into a Family Plan. Mr. Siegel suggested that the best way to approach that is to visit an Apple or AT&T store for details on or after July 11th. AT&T's Family Plans vary by region and the number of minutes, and may be specific to the iPhone family of phones. AT&T typically charges US$9.99 for an additional phone in the family plan, and in addition to the $20/month for an unlimited data plan for the old iPhone 2G you keep, you'll also pay $30/month for the new iPhone 3G. All that's in addition to the Family Plan rate for two iPhones.

Mr. Siegel also commented on the reports that some AT&T 3G smartphones are claiming 3.6 Mbps downloads on the 3G network, but that's an absolute theoretical maximum for now. Apple and AT&T have chosen to advertise an average value of 1.4 Mbps as a more representative number. At some point in the future, Mr. Siegel said, AT&T could raise the maximum download speed of their 3G network, in some places, to 7.2 or even 14.4 Mbps.

Finally, note that 3G coverage may be different than EDGE coverage for a given region. A coverage map is available at AT&T's iPhone site. iPO notes that insuring customers understand that could be one reason why in-store activation will be required in most cases.

6 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:41 am

It's not hard to erase the data on your iPhone. Go to general settings, reset, reset all and click on erase iPhone. Done!

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drjason said:

member since 28 Aug 2004 with 37 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:47 am

The major problem with option #2 is that with the new pricing structure on the 3G iPhone means the 2G iPhones value is negligible.

I am fortunate that my wife's contract with Sprint is up in November, at which point we will switch to a family plan and she will take my old 2G iPhone and I will get the new 3G iPhone (I am REALLY hoping that by that time they have bumped up the capacities to 16 and 32 GB)

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j.martellaro said:

member since 07 Dec 2006 with 97 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:10 am

Guest wrote:
It's not hard to erase the data on your iPhone. Go to general settings, reset, reset all and click on erase iPhone. Done!

Ghost data still lingers deep in the Flash NAND. Forensic techniques can dig it out after a reset.

-JM

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:25 pm

Guest wrote:
It's not hard to erase the data on your iPhone. Go to general settings, reset, reset all and click on erase iPhone. Done!

It's also not so hard to CLICK THE LINK IN THE ARTICLE to find out why what you're saying is incredibly short-sighted and foolish, if you value your personal information:

"...performing a 'Restore' operation on the iPhone does not delete personal data from the device."

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pep9454 said:

member since 24 Jan 2006 with 6 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:32 pm

Will you be able to buy the iPhone and use everything except the phone? My Verizon doesn't expire until October, but would like to use it until I pick up the service in October.

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wakundama said:

member since 20 Jun 2008 with 1 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:28 pm

Actually a used iPhone 2G does have some value because it effectively becomes equivalent to the base model iPod touch that sells for $299. With one exception, it gets software upgrades without having pay for it. All the iPod touch owners seem to always have to pay for certain upgrades. Next, for someone not able to stomach the $75 a month rate (due to extra $10 for data and $5 for not included 200 SMS messages), the iPhone 2G offers an interesting option. The only thing to consider is the depreciated value due to the battery. I'd say any iPhone 2G that the battery life starts to go down significantly in about 6 months of heavy use. So I'd say the iPhone 2G with 8G RAM that was just recently used and so is in mint condition is worth $299, because of it's iPod touch functionality.

If it's been significantly used then drop it by about $100. This would cover cost of battery replacement and maybe some minor cosmetic scuffs and scratches. So a used iPhone 2G is probably worth more like $199, which is the price of the new iPhone 3G. The purchaser will have not be locked into any monthly payments or contract, but will always have the option in the future of turning on the cell phone feature. As time goes on if the iPod touch line gets bumped up, then I'd say the iPhone 2G value would start to drop towards $100.

Another use is to keep the iPhone 2G as a backup phone to a new iPhone 3G purchase. That iPhone 3G will need to get it's battery replaced in about 1 year and so you could swap SIM cards into the iPhone 2G so that you don't have to pay for a loaner. Finally, this phone could have future retro value in 10 years as the landmark phone, much like an original IBM PC or original Mac. This phone is a first edition release, and it might be regarded as a collectors item many years from now.

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