In Monday's WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs mentioned that anyone who is eligible for an upgrade in 2010 through AT&T can get a new iPhone 4 at launch. Initially, that made me very excited because I would be able to purchase two phones (currently, my wife and I are on alternating contracts so one of us can always have the latest and greatest). The more I thought about it, however, the more I began to wonder... there must be more to this seemingly benevolent offer. After all, the deal seems just a little too good to be true. So, the wheels started turning and I came up with this conspiracy theory: I suspect that Apple is already working on an LTE (4G) iPhone and that phone will be made available to Verizon customers sometime in 2011. It's no secret that Verizon is aggressively rolling out its LTE network over the next several months and that could be in anticipation of a future relationship with Apple. This is probably making AT&T nervous and cause for them to try to get as many customers as possible to lock in to another 2-year agreement with the newly imposed $325 early termination fee. What better way than with a shiny new iPhone? We'll see how it all pans out.
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Incidentally, I came across this cool little trick. If you dial *639# on your phone, AT&T will send you a text message indicating what your eligibility status is. Both of my iPhones are currently displaying this message:
