Whose iPhone is it, anyway?

UPDATE: This requirement is only for those who purchased after 5/27/2008 and are turning their old iPhones in to get a new "free" (now with more expensive data!) iPhone 3G. AT&T employees may now uncross their legs.

Um, fellas?

This better not be true.

I just finished an e-mail exchange with an AT&T spokesperson who told me that if you upgrade from your current iPhone to iPhone 3G at an AT&T store, you need to turn in your first iPhone to qualify.

It seems wrong, so the Macalope advises a wait-and-see approach. Please wait to knee your local AT&T representative in the groin until after this is confirmed.

[iheartbeer]

I'm not well versed in the transferring/selling of an iPhone, as I don't have one yet... but what happens if you mysteriously "lose" it first? And by lose, I mean sell it on eBay?

[Macalope]

As the CNET blogging system seems loath to update this post, the Macalope will just point out in comments that this is NOT true. It's only for original iPhones purchased after 5/27/2008 which the customer wishes to trade in for a free iPhone 3G.

[ripragged]

Oh, for goodness sake. I want to trade in my iPhone on a Boxster. Is there a policy for that? Also, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to go the AT&T store and knee an employee in the groin just on general principles.

You just can't have any fun anymore.

[GA-geek]

My wife was in the Apple store yesterday and the kid in the genius bar told her that even if I keep my iPhone, it won't function even as an iPod unless it has a service attached to it. I decided to test that statement and removed my SIM card. Everything worked fine, including WiFi. Just goes to show that you shouldn't believe everything you hear, even from people who should know :-).