If you haven’t heard, Apple has announced the service plan pricing structure for the iPhone. They’re actually a little more reasonable than I expected them to be. More info can be found here.
“iPhone goes on sale at 6:00 p.m. (local time) on Friday, June 29 and will be sold in the US through Apple’s retail and online stores and AT&T retail stores. iPhone will be available in a 4GB model for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599 (US), and will work with either a PC or Mac®. All iPhone monthly service plans are available for individuals and families and are based on a new two-year service agreement with AT&T. Individual plans are priced at $59.99 for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes and $99.99 for 1,350 minutes. All plans include unlimited data (email and web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile and a one-time activation fee of $36. Family plans are also available.”
Apple has also said that you’ll activate your new service through iTunes, so you don’t have to wait in line at an AT&T store. More here.
On a technical note, Apple is saying that you’ll require OSX 10.4.10 (or a PC) to activate your phone. It’s unclear if this requirement is just for activation, or you’ll need to be running the latest version of OSX just to use an iPhone. If that’s the case, a lot of Jaguar and Panther users are going to be pretty pissed.
I’m wondering if I can just take my SIM chip out of my company’s Cinguar/AT&T phone and insert that into the iPhone. Surely apple didn’t kill the SIM chip?
Yes they killed the sim chip. To prevent other users from other carriers from using the iPhone, on say T-mobile. On a side note…if people are still using Panther or Jag, they prolly are not shelling out $600 on an iPhone. Just a thought….
Actually, it looks like the iPhone does have a SIM card. They mention it in this FAQ, but it’s not very difinitave…