iPhone 5S Upgrade Options

[Anonymous]

It now seems very likely that the iPhone 5S will be announced on 10/09 and released shortly afterwards (possibly 20/09)

I currently have an iPhone 5 64GB and as a self confessed Apple Fan Boy I always try to upgrade either on the day or very shortly afterwards.

Previously I've always done the mid-term upgrade which has worked well and I've just paid the one-off fee premium for the handset and signed a new 24 month contract.

As this is no longer available, I'm trying to understand what my options are and currently I think it's either:

Fast Track Upgrade - where I would basically have to settle my existing contract balance -20% which equates to around £350-£400

4G Upgrade Promise - not sure but this seems similar to the Fast Track but gives a 25% discount

With both of these options I would then still need to pay the handset premium fee. I would of course sell my existing phone

The other option of course is to just buy a new handset direct from Apple and keep my current contract - possibly £699 or more?

I'm used to paying a couple of hundred pounds for the privilege of having the latest version but suddenly it seems to have got a whole lot more expensive. I’m on a business tariff by the way.

Does anyone know of any other alternatives or loopholes? 

[Bambino]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I strongly suspect they are trying to encourage people to take out contracts - presumably people who buy phones up front (or second hand) and use sim-only are less profitable than tying people into a two-year hire-purchase scheme.  

The main thing in the future is data usage - the fact that no company offers unlimited data is quite telling (back in the day schemes with unlimited texts then unlimited minutes would at one time have been unimaginably generous but the opposite is happening with data).  I'm clinging on to my unlimited-data 3G sim for now but I won't get the choice with 4G.

The pernicious (and IMHO dishonest) feature of data usage when there is a limit is that there are so many sneaky ways that the consumer can be unwittingly manipulated into using up more than they need to then "ker-ching!" the provider cashes in with a huge bill-shock and hides behind their yada yada obfuscating small-print.

Just my 2c as an experienced cynic

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And the worst phones for that (switching to GSM from WiFi in sleep mode) is........the iPhone!!!!!!!!