I'm impressed. I figured they would really stick it to the buyers but they didn't. This thing is going to be sold out very quickly.

Jeez 60 bux a month, I must have a very minimal cellaphone service. I'd get rid of my home phone if I was going to have to pay that.

lmao. you only need 200 text messages a month because noone wants to type on a screen without any tacticle feedback. 100 bucks a month for unlimited data? how much data can you download with 2g anyhow? lame...

Glad to see the data wasn't an additional fee!

holy cow that's expensive. I only pay $49 for 1250 minutes plus nights (at 7) weekends, vision, etc. This thing is such a dud.

wow the plans are ex...

TCO of owning an iphone ain't cheap ya

the plan sucks !

200 text messages should be more than enough. What is this, Europe? Joking aside, hopefully people will be emailing more and SMSing less.

$60 is what I pay monthly for my Sidekick plan through T-Mobile. However, that gets me 1000 anytime minutes, and unlimited SMS.

Not that I need SMS on the Sidekick, because it has AIM. What a glaring omission from the iPhone.

The big question. Can you tether, and is it included in the plans? As an example, my AT&T BlackBerry plan is voice + $30 for unlimited data, but tethering is $50/mo. more. However, on my old phone, I was able to use the MediaWorks plan and tether for the same price.

so, is Giz calling bullsh*t on the $79.99 plan...or did someone forget their html coding skills?

These seem like amazingly reasonable plans. I have a blackberry with 450 mins and an unlimited data plan and I was paying $79.99. That might make that $600 price tag a little easier to swallow if you can save $20/month. Am I missing something, cause based on that, you would have almost paid for the phone when the two year contract is up.

Wow these plans are actually pretty reasonable. The 200 txt messages kinda sucks though but the unlimited data is pretty nice. But the killer is no unlimited nights and weekends. Thats gonna hurt a lot of people.

And I still will end up paying around the same amount on T-Mobile for more minutes, more text (an additional cost), mobile-to-mobile (an additional cost), unlimited data on my pearl (additional cost).

Good luck iPhone.

Wow, the haters are out early today.

This plan is exactly what it should be. It's pretty much their normal voice plans with $20 extra for an unlimited data plan.

This is much better than other data plans out there (ie existing ATT/Cingular and Verizon plans). Unlimited data across the board is the only way this could work, and the price is fine.

I iexpect that you can upgrade to unlimited text messages for $5/mo ... that's been the standard at AT&T for quite a while now. Give them 200 then make them pay an extra $5 for unlimited. that's the way it is for other plans currently.

Actually, i saw "somewhere" that the top two plans have unlimited nights and weekends and the bottom tier plan has 5000.

just sayin'

It is simply Cingular's standard $39 plan with the $20 unlimited data option. Sadly cingular does not offer a smaller plan, which I would be more interested in something around 300min especially considering they offer rollover minutes.

The family plans make less sense in that they say they do not include an extra line (isn't that the whole point), which tacks on $30 more per month to get the second line! Non-iphone family plans include the second line, and a 3red only costs and additional 10.

I don't know about the usual prices in the states, but god knows if such plans with such ridiculous prices come near the UAE (my country of residence) the telecommunication company is going down like burning hell!!

I always try to love the iPhone, but whenever I remember the price and that there is NO 3G (wtf) I go crazy and say one thing:

Steve Jobs is humiliating the entire human race with such inventions, no brain use and absolutely dull. I mean for the love of god, I already created the iPhone motions and slides on flash, how amazingly complicated and life changing can it get!! (F#%&)

5000 night and weekend minutes is a buttload of minutes. Say you spend 100 minutes on your phone every night for 31 days. Thats only 3100 minutes. If you spend more than 100 min on your phone every night you need to get a life in my opinion.

Actually, unlimited night and weekend minutes are included, per Apple's website. I think the plans are pretty fair, and it's cool that existing AT&T customers can add an iPhone in place of an existing phone without having to activate a new number. I'm in.

Hmmm, are these plans outrageously expensive (as some posts say), or are they very reasonable (as others say)? No wonder people can't agree on anything if people see these plans' pricing so differently.

From my perspective, as someone who bought a Sprint Treo 700p the day it came out (it was pricey!), the iPhone and it's plan both seem reasonable to me.

so sherlock, tell me how people with a brain are haters? how is a 2g data plan much better than other 3g plans? how is it reasonable to pay a premium on your monthly plan (that goes straight to apple) just to use the iphone.

So...the predictions of boy genius were wrong. I'm not trying to bash him/her, but the last few predicitions from what he calls insider information were wrong. I guess that his insiders are feeding him false intel. I'd be pissed if I were him/her right about now.

These plans are Cingular/ATT's regular plans. It's essentially the $40 450min plan with the $20 MediaMax bundled, for unlimited data and 200 SMS msgs.

In effect, they have already proclaimed the iPhone as being a "normal" cellphone and not a smartphone -- the smartphone dataplan they have is the same price (I think) but does not come with the 200 SMS.

I think the biggest dig is the fine print

"Minimum new 2-year wireless service plan and activation fee required to activate iPhone features, including iPod; plans are subject to AT&T credit approval."

So you can't use the iPod w/o a contract eh?! There goes teh hope of unlocked phones!

I'm a Cingular customer already, and I have a Treo 650 with unlimited data. I pay $60 right now for a slightly lesser plan (350 minutes/month, rollover, unlimited data, no sms) So to me, these plans look very reasonable or even inexpensive. I am delighted with the new plans and they make my decision to get an iPhone that much easier.

The video on the Apple website shows 5000mins for nights and weekend on the $59 plan, and unlimited for the others.

looks about just right to me. i'm totally pleased with these plans.

my only question is, what sort of "family plan" do they offer?

Did you just claim you invented the iPhone?

so sherlock, tell me how people with a brain are haters? how is a 2g data plan much better than other 3g plans?

Sherlock? Are you 12?

Anyway... what I am saying is the plan's pricing is in line (or cheaper) with other data plans out there, and is far superior to a "pay as you use" type of data plan. The iPhone depends on the data connection for most of its features.

Bottom line, it is going to cost me $20 extra a month compared to my existing Cingular family plan. That seems line $20 well spent for what I will be getting.

As far as the the EDGE-vs-3g thing... yeah, everyone wants 3g... I'm sure it will be in future versions of the phone. That said, where I live it is EDGE only (as is most of the US outside of major metropolitan areas), so oh well. The point is, we know it isn't 3G, so that's not really a valid criticism at this point.

/Sherlock... he he.

I wanna know if the 10% discount I get with Cingular (oops, AT&T) through my job will still apply. And what are the chances that since you're getting hosed on the phone (no discounts for signing a contract) that they'll waive the activation fee or throw in a bluetooth headset. Oh, wait, since there's morons camping out already they don't need to offer discounts to get people to buy the iphone.

I want the phone because it looks cool, but mainly because it will sync seamlessly with my G5. That's what stopped me from buying a smartphone and renewing my contract 6 months ago- I didn't know how compatible it would be with my Mac.

[www.apple.com]

They should have included the 450-minute plan for free. Just buy the phone, hop on the website, activate, and *boom* -- 450 minutes. No extra cost.

Hopefully someone will hack a voip client on there so everyone will only have to get the lower priced plan.
Does voip work on edge? Never tried it...

I think anybody who has used a blackberry with cingular will be happy. The blackberry plan does come with unlimited text, which I think the iPhone should have. If they had iChat on the phone, that is one thing, but I guess one of the places ATT didn't back down was charging stupid rates for messaging. They will probably charge an extra $10 for unlimited text messaging, which I guess I will suck up, but makes it less of a deal. As other people said, the key to this thing is will it tether.

Just in case no one noticed, these are the normal ATT plan prices.

Voice plans start at $39 for 450 mins, and unlimited data plans are $19.

I am completely surprised by how fair that price is. My work phone has a 50 dollar voice charge and a 40 dollar data charge for the same minutes. Nice one, Apple!

i used to have a sidekick with t-mobile, and their plans were a better deal, imho. plus they were unlimited txt. it's just too bad t-mobiles coverage where i live really sucks. i still cant believe the iphone isnt 3g. dumb dumb dumb.

I was expecting slightly higher rates, so I think this is good news for prospective iPhone owners.

The pricing is similar to the Helio "all-in" plans (though without the unlimited everything), so it's a decent offering.

I'm not surprised there are no "voice only" options--it would be kind of dumb to spend that much money on a phone and then just use it to talk to people.

The picture with the story is awesome.

I am surprised that these are almost reasonable. After you get get taxes and fees and such, you will be at around $70-$80 for the most reasonable, but that is actually an acceptable price for what you get. Shocking.

Does anyone know how much of the $1400 that goes to AT&T will be kicked back to Apple for the exclusive deal?

I've already got a dream plan from AT&T, sadly, I would have to give it up to get the iPhone.

I got a charter deal when AT&T introduced GSM - $99 for unlimited voice calling, 24 hours a day. I've added unlimited data and text to the deal, and I'm still in under $150 a month. Since the plan hasn't been offered for several years, though, the moment I make a change to my account, my sweet deal is gone forever, never to return.

Then again, I really do want an iPhone. I have no idea what to do.

wait.. .so i get to use my current plan, at it's current price, and get unlimited data for free?! Dope, I'm liking this phone more and more every day!

I'll bump this again, does anyone know if the plan includes tethering (and if it's even possible to do on this unit)?

With the exception of only 200 SMS, this is a WAY better deal than what I have going on with AT&T to maintain my Treo 680...

If I were 'permissionmag' I would go to the doc frequently. For $150 to be reasonable, you have to be on the phone all day and all night. What do you do for batteries?
I digress. These plans sound more than reasonable, but it sucks that you cannot just go with a simple voice plan, and use whatever wi-fi plan you want.

Very reasonable plans, but then again Cingular's no-limit data plans have always been cheaper than Verizon's. At least for consumers (e.g., iPhone users) it has been, I think the coporate rate is more than double for full data. BTW, $499 and $599 ARE the discounted prices with plans...I bet without plans it'll cost closer to $800.

sold! way more affordable than I'd feared -- this is pretty close to my current t-mobile sidekick plan, except that the 200 SMS might kill me. Time to turn dodgeball and twitter to e-mail only?

This plan mostly shows how ridiculously overpriced the AT&T PDA plans are. I pay $39.99 for unlimited data and 1500 messages (I only have the 1500 messages because AT&T changed their old PDA Connect plan to the PDA Max plan and threw in the messages). Why can't I have the iPlan? Because the Blackjack has a keyboard, and AT&T says that makes it a PDA. We now have four arbitrary classifications, all with different rates (Blackberry, PDA, Smartphone, iPhone). Too bad the revolutionary iPhone couldn't revolutionize AT&T's full data plan line.

@macserv:

SMS is not IM, not everyone is on a computer at all times - SMS is for people on the go with a cellphone. There is little difference when contacting someone with their cellphone, its either SMS or voice. IM is an addin you got used to because you are 12 years old, and thought the internet was invented by Al Gore.

Yeah these plans may seem fair to some, and ridiculous to others, but what makes me cringe is no mention of an insurance plan! AT&T won't cover anything over $300 right? For a revolutionary phone, that's gonna hurt a lot of early adopters.

Ouch!

So how would this work if you're in an existing family plan? Say 1 year into a 2 yr contract.

so your iphone effectively costs almost $2000? No wonder EU providers aren't willing to provide it.

Rule of thumb for contract phones : the value of the cheapest phone contract is generally how much the phone costs without a sim.

Does anyone know if the Family Plans apply if there's two of us and only one has an iPhone?

Suckers! HA! I still pay 49.99 for 1500 AND nights weekend at t-mobile. My whole bill, including web and text and caller tunes and tax is 71.00/month. And guess what? the data plan is probably just as fast as their 2.5 data.

It's a sad day to see people lined up for this phone. What an absolute waste of money.