Buying an iPhone as a Christmas gift

apple must be losing and will be losing even more money this holiday season, since they won't allow people to purchase iphone with out activating it in the store. a lot of people don't want to buy an iphone gift card...gift cards take the fun out of gift giving.

Interesting idea - from a Best Buy commercial, of all places. It assumes they already have AT&T phones. He could buy the iPhones and activate them in store, ideally at a time when they won't be using their phones. Then, bring the iPhones home, take out the SIM cards, and put them into their current phones (they will work). Then, on Xmas eve, swap them back then wrap the iPhones.

I would like to get my wife one as well. What I plan on doing is purchasing the phone putting it in my name, (upgrading my currant iPhone). Then after X-mass swap and give her the new iPhone. I heard that AT&T will be discounting the phones for the holiday season, so Im going to wait till the last minute to purchase one just incase.

[RM] wrote:
Apple doesn't want all those phone end up on eBay. AT&T and Apple offer gift cards, as the only option you have to give someone an iPhone.

Apple couldn't care less. They will have their money. AT&T don't want it on ebay, as they have paid Apple $200 for you to buy the phone. They need that money back.

It's pretty much standard process for all high-end smartphones nowadays. They are heavily subsidized by the mobile providers, and they want a return on that investment.

If they will be activated on a single account (a FamilyTalk plan) he can buy them ahead of time. He'll need to activate them in the store at the time of purchase. The only problem with that might be porting phone numbers over - that's done at the time of purchase, and once done, the service on the old account is shut off.

Might be better (though less satisfying) to get iPhone Gift Cards...

i am in the same predicament...i would like to buy my wife an iphone for christmas but don't want to tell her about the gift. is there ANY way i can purchase the phone WITHOUT telling her i bought it???

PLEASE HELP

You could buy the iPhone Gift Card as stated above.

You could buy an iPhone and set it up with a new telephone number (i.e. a third phone on your plan) and swap the numbers later and cancel the other line. This is assuming your wife either (a) does not use a subsidized phone or (b) has a subsidized phone and has completed her 2 year contract. If neither (a) nor (b) is true then you will have to pay a $175 cancellation fee when you swap the numbers. I'd check with your closest AT&T corporate store before trying this option.

Nick Rooney wrote:
It will be a FamilyTalk plan, but he doesn't want them to know. Wouldn't activating in store let them know by turning off their other phones?

Yes. That's what I was implying when I stated, +"The only problem with that might be porting phone numbers over - that's done at the time of purchase, and once done, the _service on the old account is shut off_."+

tizzel wrote:
apple must be losing and will be losing even more money this holiday season, since they won't allow people to purchase iphone with out activating it in the store. a lot of people don't want to buy an iphone gift card...gift cards take the fun out of gift giving.

Apple doesn't want all those phone end up on eBay. AT&T and Apple offer gift cards, as the only option you have to give someone an iPhone. But you guys have to be keep in mind few factors: Will iPhones be available when you go to store to pick them up, I don't believe buying a gift card will guarantee you an iPhone, if it's for the new line, will there be a deposit or not, that's an other factor to remember, and of course the upgrade eligibility, will the price be $199/299 or $399/499. I will have to agree that Apple makes it extreemly hard to give an iPhone as a gift, even AT&T people don't think it's a good idea, with gift cards and all. So you guys need to go to AT&T store or I guess Apple store and first find out the answers to all thsose questions, and Apple ofcourse will have better quanities in stock, but check with AT&T about axpected stock quanities (note AT&T can not hold them for anyone).

well neither Apple or AT&T want them on eBay, if they didn't care they would have them for sale at full price without contract, but again, neither Apple or AT&T sell them like that, so it looks like they do care, and Apple is interested in having them on selected service providers.

[RM] wrote:
well neither Apple or AT&T want them on eBay, if they didn't care they would have them for sale at full price without contract, but again, neither Apple or AT&T sell them like that, so it looks like they do care, and Apple is interested in having them on selected service providers.

Apple didn't care who had them with the original. They even joked about it at the 3G launch. They make their money either way. It's more profitable to sell it as a subsidized phone.

Once you pay for the phone via whatever carrier you use, Apple have banked the money. They couldn't care less what happens after that.