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iPhone Upgrade from 4GB to 16GB Model

     - Thursday, February 21, 2008

Five months ago I purchased the discontinued 4GB version of the iPhone right after the price drop. At $300, I spent the better part of that time justifying the expense. I'll do it again now. I didn't own an iPod, I desperately needed a new cell phone, my company took back the Blackberry they had given me several months earlier, and I already had service with AT&T.

Justification, and More Justification

So $300 for a new smart phone seemed completely reasonable. And thankfully, I've fallen in love with it. I recently figured out how to convert DVD's and load them to the phone, which just increased the love. And now I wanted more storage. I'd also saved every bit of packaging with the intention to sell it once the next gen model came out. While the 16GB model isn't the 3G 2nd Gen that I was hoping for, I thought it was still time to resell the 4GB model while it still had a market.

eBay Takes the Old Phone Away

After a 24-hour fire-sale on eBay, the phone sold for $355, and I was off to buy the new 16GB model. I feel a little guilty about selling a used phone for $55 more than I paid for it, but I got over that quickly. At $355, the phone is still cheaper than the lowest cost new model at $400. And the package that the buyer will receive is in pristine condition. I included the entire package of the new phone in with the old phone, right down to the brand new earbuds, mini-dock, charger and cable, finger tips, warranty booklet, Apple logo stickers, and lint-free cloth. After thoroughly cleaning the phone, I even re-wrapped the phone itself in the plastic from the new phone.

Wipe, Backup, Restore, and Sync

I was nervous about the big switch over to the new phone. But that couldn't have gone smoother. Before boxing the old phone, I finally pushed that restore button that's been staring at me in iTunes for the last 5 months. Before wiping the phone completely, the restore process made a backup. When the restore finished, however, the phone still displayed the "This iPhone is activated" message. But that was resolved next.

I plugged in the new phone, and iTunes popped up the activation menu. One of the options was to transfer the account to the new phone. After enter my phone number and Apple ID, the new phone became activated, and the old phone deactivated. I was presented with a screen that said that I needed a NEW 2-year contract with AT&T. From what I've read, AT&T will back-date this new contract to the start date of my previous contract. I don't much care either way; it would only mean a 5 month extension on the contract anyway. Not a big deal, I wasn't going anywhere without my iPhone in the next 2 years anyway.

Next up was the restore process, using the backup I'd made of the old phone. After a couple minutes, the new phone was configured identical to the old phone, right down to retaining the last numbers I had displayed on the calculator! Only my passwords weren't restored, including all email accounts and wi-fi passwords.

Finally I pushed the Sync button, and watched as all my songs, podcasts, video's and pictures loaded to the new device. A quick Bluetooth headset pairing, and I was done.

The Upgrade User Experience

Overall the wipe of the old phone, activation, restore, and sync of the new phone, was super smooth. Only encountered a couple minor glitchs along the way. My first attempt at wiping the old phone failed for an "unknown" reason. I guess, correctly, that there wasn't enough free space on the phone to load and run the backup/restore functions. A quick delete of some of the movies opened enough space, that the 2nd time around worked fine. I also had temporary amnesia for my Apple ID, but got back on the right track quickly. Since every Apple store in the state of Georgia is sold out of 16 GB models, I had to make my purchase at an AT&T store. That was fine though. I got the same phone as I'd get at an Apple store, without the "we're Apple, we're better" attitude. Not only because they actually were in stock, I gotta say, the AT&T store was a better shopping experience. No mall traffic to fight, and, oh, did I mention that they actually had phones available?

So that's my iPhone upgrade story. Hope you've enjoyed it. I'm jonesing for my next iPhone hit, so I'll catch you later. Thanks for reading. Any one want to share their upgrade stories in the comments?

posted by Kevin Watts |  Permalink |