Best Australian iPhone 3GS Deals

Everyone’s prices are out there and the phone is on sale, so what are the best deals for the Apple 3GS? Here’s Lifehacker’s picks.

In Australia, iPhone enthusiasts are relatively spoiled, because there are a range of networks selling the iPhone and a wide variety of plans. In many markets, there’s a single company offering Apple’s iconic phone, so the choice is limited to “Do I want one?”

In Australia, Optus, Telstra and Vodafone are all selling the phone, and 3 will offer it in July. (It also seems reasonable to assume that Optus subsidiary Virgin, which sells the original 3G, will offer its own plans at some point.)

Your own individual usage of the iPhone will vary heavily, so it’s impossible to make a blanket recommendation of a single plan that will suit everyone. If you’re an existing iPhone 3G owner (and aren’t content simply to upgrade the OS), you’ll also need to look at what upgrade options your carrier will offer. These seem to vary even with customers using the same provider, so if that’s you, get on the phone or head into a store and haggle.

Plan pricing for the 3GS isn’t remarkably different to that for the existing 3G, and the older model has become cheaper to reflect the appearance of its new sibling. If you’re not fussed about storage, the 8GB 3G is a good bargain deal right now.

Also bear in mind that the iPhone won’t work any miracles in the reception department. If you live in an area where a particular telco has poor or non-existent signal, you need to cross them off the list no matter how appealing a particular deal might sound.