Well, the explanations I've been reading are, essentially:

If you bought the first iPhone, you paid full price for the hardware + a two-year contract, so AT&T wasn't "losing" anything when they offered the 3G at a subsidized price + two years (which was actually *more* expensive for the customer than the original deal) ...

This time around, since apparently they didn't make enough off your original purchase + 1 year of contract + raising rates for the second term + what you *did* pay for the new hardware + 1+ year of contract, they prefer to have you run out your existing contract ...

Otherwise, they want you to pay $200 to cover the remaining subsidy for the 3G, then essentially subsidizing the new phone + a new two-year contract ...

What they don't appear to offer is full-price for the new phone w/o the requirement for a new contract. That way their subsidy would still be paid-off under the existing contract and they'd (presumably) make some cash off the new equipment sale. They'd certainly not be any worse-off than letting existing contracts simply expire, and they'd gain good-will, at least, of existing customers instead of pissing them off ...

This is why I hate tying phones to plans. I would much rather pay full-price for the equipment and be able to buy service a la carte ... but then the service providers would actually have to focus on service and not hardware deals ...

I agree its NOT compelling to run out and upgrade , they almost sound like At&T is discouraging you to do so ? IMO

I just watch that iPhone 3G' S Guided Tour - fwiw it is not that great compared to the cost of upgrading <-- fantastic for first time buyers

I hope the new Compass is good for Poly , I will wait for his review

I have a 2 yr old MB and am considering the MBP $1099 education. I calculate I can upgrade for about $230 !! (assuming I can get $800 for my old book - with all the software on it and 1 year left on AppleCare).

That includes taking the free iPod and Printer and reselling them.
That gives me a faster Laptop and a new 3 yr AppleCare.coverage...
I'll also save $30 on upgrading Snow Leopard and $30 extending my Mobile Me account 12 months.

IF it all works out .. final cost should be around $170 + Tax.

I'm just guessing, but I highly suspect that Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade disc and a separate full install disc. I don't see any other way to distinguish if you're upgrading or using a full install AFTER you've already purchased the install DVD.

The sucky thing about that is, if you ever need to do a clean install, you would have to install Leopard first, then update to Snow Leopard - just like those stupid "drop-in discs" the Apple Stores were doing a while back for people who purchased a new Mac the day of and a few days after Leopard was released.

Even a downloadable update would be the same setup (check for previous install). I just don't see any other way of doing it. Got any ideas?

Call it a Service Pack and give it to us for free

That could be.... maybe I'll spring for it anyway for my wife's iMac.

The Snow Leopard Install disk might just ask for you to put in a Leopard disk to verify. I can't imagine they would make you install Leopard and then turn around and reinstall SL on top of it.

Why would it do that? NeoOffice patches check for a supported version of Neo before it will install the patch. All it has to do is check for your current installed system version (or look at your receipts).

Dang! I just called the store I ordered my MacBook from and found out it had been shipped yesterday...and since I ordered for my small business, it is pretty much a done deal by law now as it is paid for and shipped.

Oh well, basically it would be just an SD card reader (no biggie) and a FW800 (somewhat of a biggie) upgrade on that setup. And yeah, the option to go to 8 gigs of max ram instead of four.

Still, I gotta say 'ARGH'.

Do they have a restocking fee ?

If not, just return it unopened and redo the whole process.