By now I’m sure you’ve heard uproar going around the Internet concerning At&t’s early upgrade pricing for iPhone 3G owners hoping to step up to the 3G S.  Well my friends it is time to put the hearsay to rest and dive into the facts with the simplest explanation we could delve up.

You purchased your original iPhone and you paid a non-subsidized price of $499 or $559 at launch.  At this point technically At&t still owed you a subsidized handset since you had committed to a 2-year contract.  When the iPhone 3G went on sale, At&t delivered on this IOU by giving everyone with an iPhone the new customer pricing of $199 and $299  for the iPhone 3G.  Now fast forward one year and iPhone 3G owners are currently roughly 1 year into their contracts.  Since we have not completed our 18 month requirement to be eligible for a fully discounted upgrade we are given ‘early upgrade pricing’.

If you had purchased the At&t Fuze last year and wanted to buy the Touch Pro2 just a year later you would be in exactly the same position, early upgrade.  You would not be eligible for the fully discounted price until you were at least 18 months into your contract.  So why is this fair?

The iPhone 3G 16GB model currently sells for $400 to $500 on eBay in good condition.  This is enough to step up to the iPhone 3G S 16GB or 32GB models without paying much more than tax out of pocket.  The answer is simple to us, put your iPhone 3G on eBay Saturday with a 5 day auction style listing so that you receive payment for your device by Friday.  Now walk into that At&t or Apple store Friday June 19 and pickup your new iPhone 3G S.