The “Break it Down” Blog

In an effort to “lock this bitch down” AT&T seems to be done placating Apple and letting folks buy the phone, take it home and JailBreak it. It looks like the new iPhone is going to require in-store activation along with requiring more expensive AT&T standard data/voice services to function.

I think the days of buying an iPhone, bringing it home and doing what you want with it, all while paying a somewhat competitive rate are done.

Here are the deets from Gizmodo:

We just talked to AT&T’s President of National Distribution Glenn
Lurie, who gave us all the pricing and activation details for the
iPhone 3G, which won’t be getting special treatment anymore. It will
be using all AT&T’s standard voice and data plans, which means $30 for
unlimited 3G data for consumers, $45 for business users on top of
voice. Also, no in-home activation for iPhone 3G—it will have to be
activated in store (at AT&T or Apple Store), which takes 10-12
minutes, meaning that first day line is going to SUCK. And you will
have to camp out, since there won’t be any online ordering at
launch—and Glenn was mum on how many phones there’d be to go around.

Update: Interesting point from Apple Gazette about ending Apple ending revenue-sharing with AT&T—it means we might have to pay for future feature updates to the iPhone 3G since Apple won’t be getting those monthly checks, thanks to those “accounting purposes.” Obviously we don’t know for sure yet. Besides, SDK might make it a moot point.

Update 2: David alerts us to this bit from Dow Jones’ report: “AT&T
and Apple are working on a form of penalty for users who don’t
activate their iPhone within 30 days of purchase.” Whoa. Guess that’ll
cut down on unlockers, eh?

Update 3: Looks like AT&T’s dropping the GoPhone plan for the iPhone
3G too, meaning you need that 2-year contract. Also, it’s been pointed
out Apple is still counting its revenue for the phone over the course
of two years despite dumping revenue-sharing with AT&T, so iPhoners
can probably continue to lord free updates over iPod touchers.

It looks like the hayday of the iPhone being awesome are done for… leave that up to AT&T to destroy the “sweetness” that Apple had sprinkled into them.

Ahh well, there is still T-Mobile and it’s BlackBerry lineup… good phones to be gotten there!

Thanks Patrick Norton via Gizmodo!