iPhonefreak width="190"

Kewl! So I rushed home this evening to apply for my Apple iPhone Credit!

Devoted readers may recall I rather predicted this day in my post referring to the similar Aperture rebate. But I won’t rub it in. It’s just important to remember that the Mothership tends to do the Right Thing in the end.

Honestly, lots of us who activated the iPhone those first few days recall that activation was, um, well, you know. . .a tad slow. When possible at all.

Lemme confess that I was afraid of a similar experience for the credit process. But no! Steve worked out all the kinks this time.

It was fast, easy, seamless — I had my coupon in less than 3 minutes from starting.

Warning: since you have to print the final coupon out, don’t do this on the iPhone itself!   

The steps are a no-brainer:

1. Go to the Apple credit coupon page.
2. Click Get Started
3. You’ll be taken to the Step 1 page that asks you to enter your activated iPhone telephone number and your iPhone’s serial number to identify your iPhone.
4. Find your serial number by tapping Settings on the Home screen. This takes you to the main Settings display. Tap General to go to the General settings screen. In general, tap About. The About display lists the Serial Number.
5. Type your phone and serial numbers into the appropriate form fields on the Step 1 page. Review them to ensure they are correct. Click Continue to go to the Step 2 page.
6. Apple will send you a free text message with an access code number. The Step 2 page says it may take up to 5 minutes to receive this code, but mine came in less than a minute.
7. Enter the access code on the step 2 page. Review it to ensure it is correct. Click Continue to proceed to Step 3.
8. The Step 3 page generates a printable coupon card with bar codes for a Credit Number and a PIN.
9. Click Print this Page to print your coupon.
10. Start shopping!

I’m spending my credit on AppleCare for iPhone and whatever’s left over will go towards David Pogue’s iPhone the Missing Manual. Not that I need the book — iPhone has to be the most intuitive product ever — but I just enjoy reading Pogue’s humor!

Mwahh! Big kiss to Steve!

Tell me please what you bought with your 100 bucks!