For Refurbed Apple iPhones, Cyber Monday Is No Black Friday

AT&T's refurbished 16GB iPhone 3G for $49.99 was a Black Friday special only, according to AT&T's online sales support. On Cyber Monday, it's the 8GB iPhone 3G that's priced at $49-and available in black only.
The carrier is also offering refurbished 32GB iPhone 3GS models, in black or white, for $249.
While some potential customers can order the refurbished iPhones online, others will need to ring up the new-sales department at (888) 333-6651, due to what an AT&T customer service representative described as "increased fraudulent activity" in certain ZIP codes. (Sorry, Brooklyn, N.Y.)
According to the AT&T site, all of its refurbished phones and devices are pre-owned units that were returned within the 30-day trial period and have been refurbished and updated to new-from-the-factory standards. They come with a 90-day warranty and-as the devices' original owners know well-a 30-day no-risk return policy.
The news comes on a day when rumors are surfacing about a new iPhone model. Whether this is the widely speculated-about iPhone tablet, or an updated iPhone model, is not known.
Mac Rumors has reported that iPhone developer Pandav has spotted, in its application analytics records, an unidentified iPhone model. Through a service from PinchMedia, Pandav is able to see the devices that are using its applications-in this case an application called iBart, for navigating San Francisco's public transportation.
"[The] list of devices is reported to developers using internal device identification numbers assigned by Apple," Mac Rumors reported Nov. 30. "In this case, 'iPhone3.1' was first spotted in Pandav's usage logs in November. This 'iPhone3.1' identifier does not match up with any shipping iPhones. The last iPhone released to the public was the iPhone 3GS, which carries the identification string 'iPhone2.1.'"
According to Mac Rumors, references to iPhone 3.1 go back to August, and Apple began testing its iPhone 3GS eight months before launch. For some, the Pandav news fuels the expectation that Apple will release a new iPhone model in 2010, when its exclusivity contract with AT&T expires.