Existing iPhone owners may face stiff upgrade cost - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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The prices announced, from $199 for an 16-gigabyte modelp to $299 for a 32-gigabytde version, only apply to "new and qualified" But existing owners who want to swap to the newdevicesa won't get the big subsidy from the iPhone's exclusive service provider, that new customerds will get. They will have to wait untipl theirexisting 2-year service contract runs out to get the lower price. That boosts the price on the new phoneasfrom $199 with a new contract on the 16-gigabytee model to $399. Upgrading the 32-gigabyte model will cost $499 versuds $299 for new customers.
This represents a change in policuy from when the current iPhone 3G was releaseed last year and existing owners were allowed to upgrade at the same pric e asnew customers. When that however, AT&T ends up absorbing the cost of the new subsidg on thenew phone, something it apparently doesn't plan to do this MG Siegler writes on the TechCrunch blog: "Why this mattera is that the dislike of AT&T, mixes with a not huge update to the iPhone and a highee subsidized price could be a perfect storj for users that normally would upgrade, not to.
I probabl y will because the iPhone is integral to my work and I couled use more speedand power, but the fact that I’n questioning it should say I didn’t question it for a seconfd last year." A third and long-awaited $99 iPhones price for the 8-gigabyte version announced Monday by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) appears aimed at lurinbg customers away from the new Palm Pre whose saleds began on Saturday. The Pre costs $199 with a $100 mail-inh rebate and a two-year service contract with (NYSE:S), its exclusivr service provider. Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) said late on Mondayh that sales of the Pre broke its previous records for a new but declined to giveexacy figures.
Analysts estimated that therse werebetween 50,000 and 100,000 of the devices sold and worriex that the company could face a problen in keeping up with demand.