iPhone 3GS Upgrade Cost Farce
So, the eagerly anticipated new iPhone 3GS release happened last night (well, BST anyway) and my, wasn’t everyone a little peeved! Although I spent most of my time chuckling at the hordes of people infecting my Twitter account with talk of the same damn thing, I found solace in knowing that none of it affected me. I have avoided the iPhone so far, but in the last few months have really had urges to own one.
It turns out that O2 aren’t happy with their ridiculous monopoly over the iPhone and want to still charge their loyal customers hundreds of pounds to upgrade to the shiny new 3rd generation toy. You know what means, right? Yep – Twitter has been overrun once again with complaints from all sides of the UK.
The hashtag ‘#o2fail’ (you may have to be on Twitter to see this) has been parading itself around and just a quick peek on the pages of complaints shows how upset everyone is. The spec hasn’t changed much, so it really doesn’t seem worth spending the cash, is the general consensus. Even the silly ‘self-destruct’ option they’ve now built into it (to erase all your personal data) hasn’t made everyone happy. Shocker.
Users in the UK have also been informed that they will have to pay tethering charges of £14.68 per month if they want to use the new functionality that comes as part of the iPhone 3.0 software update – quite a useful feature which enables users to connect their iPhone to their computer to access the internet over the 3G network.
It is not surprising to know that O2 have not responded directly to consumer complaints over the last day or so, but on the company’s Twitter stream, they repeatedly made it clear that users would have to pay to terminate their old contracts to switch to the iPhone 3GS. Finally, iPhone users should remember that you already have one. It’s going to cost me the birth of my new child to get my hands on one.
Oh my… what’s this? I have just received a text from my phone supplier saying I am due a “fantastic upgrade”. Clever marketing or fate? There’s only one way to find out!
Related Pages:
- iPhone 3.0 Software Update – The Upgrade Experience!
- iPhone 3G Available On Other UK Networks? (Rumour)
- iPhone 3G and 3GS On Orange Mobile Network (UK)
- iPhone 3.0: The Dark Side – Part 1
- iPhone 3G & 3GS On Vodafone Mobile Network (UK)
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Comments: 1
9:52 pm 9th June, 2009
Dude! Of course you need to pay to cancel your existing contract. They work it out so that over the 18 months or so, you pay for the handset. If you could get out early for free, then you don’t.
Most of the interesting features are in the software upgrade really… although even with 3.0, the iPhone still can’t do several things my old Nokia 6610 could do in 2005: send/recieve contacts to other (not apple) phones, send/recieve appointments, file transfer over bluetooth, contacts sync over bluetooth. You know, basic phone things.
I still wouldn’t trade my iPhone for anything other than a shinier iPhone though, so they must be doing something right.