Hey! You! Don’t Buy an iPhone This Weekend!
(Image: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
By now, you’ve probably got your weekend all planned out. Maybe you are planning to drive to the mall, to buy a nice checkered autumn jacket. Maybe you’re going to go swimming one last time, or heading out to the beach before the cruel winter descends upon us.
Maybe you’re going to drink a lot of beer and dance to “Shake It Off” on repeat until your legs are tired.
That’s fine. All of these scenarios are fine. But here is one thing you do not want to do this weekend: Buy an iPhone.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are now entering the worst weekend of the year to buy an iPhone. You should not buy an iPhone this weekend, no matter what kind of offer you see in the local papers or during the television commercials for your local football team’s first game.
Don’t buy an iPhone this weekend. It’s not a good idea. It can only end in heartbreak.
Here’s the thing: Apple is throwing a press event on Sept. 9 — that would be next Tuesday — at which it is widely expected to introduce the iPhone 6. Based on Apple’s past scheduling, we can expect that the iPhone 6 will be available to purchase and bring home on Sept. 19.
If you can wait two weeks, you should. You want the iPhone 6 and not the iPhone 5s, right? You’ll be getting a newer phone, with a better camera, better battery, faster processor, and lots of other improvements. Unless your phone has been completely destroyed –– perhaps it was thrown from your pocket while dancing to “Shake It Off” and it landed in a volcano –– you should wait.
It’s not just that the iPhone 6 will be better than the iPhone 5s and upgraded with more modern technology. It’s likely, too, that the iPhone 6 will cost $200 with a two-year service agreement from your carrier, which is exactly what an iPhone 5s costs today. In other words, waiting isn’t likely to come with a cost penalty. You can pay $200 for an iPhone 5s this weekend, or you can pay $200 for an iPhone 6 in two weeks.
Hold still with your current phone, pay the same price, get a better phone. It’s a no-brainer.
Even if you’re turned off by the cosmetic rumors surrounding the iPhone 6 — maybe you don’t like the idea of a bigger screen, or maybe you consider the number 6 to be a bad luck charm –– you can still save money on an iPhone 5s if you wait. In a week, the iPhone 5s will cost $100 on contract instead of $200 on contract.
We’re talking savings of $100. A Benjamin. A C-note. A hundo dolla dolla bills, ya’ll.
So: Do not buy an iPhone this weekend. Wait a couple weeks, if you can. You can either get a newer, better, faster phone for the same price or you can save $100 on the same phone.
To sum up: These are the tweets you do not want to be sending this weekend:
There are lots of fun things to do this weekend. Go to a music concert. Learn a new language. Buy a terrarium. Go see the Ninja Turtles explosion-fest in a megaplex.
But whatever you do, don’t buy an iPhone. You don’t want to be the last guy or gal in America who pays $200 for an iPhone 5s.
Unless, that is, overspending for electronics is your thing. In that case: Go ahead, buy an iPhone this weekend. I’ll be over here, setting up my new terrarium and waiting for Apple to make that purchase look pretty, pretty silly.
