iPhone 3G Finally Available In US Contract-Free

Engadget is reporting that the iPhone 3G is finally available contract-free if you are willing to pay a much higher premium. Without a contract consumers are looking at $599 for an 8GB model and $699 for the 16GB. AT&T has the added restriction that you must be an existing AT&T customer, but Apple (retail stores only, sorry) will sell one to anyone willing to pay the premium. This change brings the model much closer to the prevailing European model where phones are sold as hardware and the plans are handled completely separately.

Comments

European Model...

[MLopat]

I love how marketers in North America continue to push the idea of "European". We've all seen the infomercials where they state "This is a best selling product in Europe..." or "In Europe this retails for $60 but..."

The way that it really works in Europe is that you pay for your phone over the course of your contract. For example, if you want a phone that is $600 and you are on a 3 year agreement, you pay $16.67 as a line item on your monthly bill to pay for the cost of the phone. That's much better than the hidden subsidy cost that most (if not all) North American carriers provide.

Re:Jail-breaking

[iluvcapra]

Lets define our terms:

• "Jailbreaking" is performing a procedure so that you can run any executable you wish, and not just those permitted by the App store.
• "unlocking" is performing a procedure so that you can use the phone with a different carrier.

This story would appear to be an instance of the second thing.

Re:So it's true

[ausekilis]

Lets do a little math with AT&T's contract

• $36 activation fee for each new line
• $175 early termination fee of contract
• $199 8G iPhone w/2yr contract
• $411 to get an iPhone via broken contract

Or I could spend $599 for one without a contract, and still give AT&T a boatload of money.

How exactly is this a good deal?

Re:It's funny. In Japan, they can't give them away

[je ne sais quoi]

Low iphone sales in Japan is FUD to which the blogosphere and the WSJ caught on. In fact, Japan ranks second in iphone sales. Of course the U.S. is where the majority of sales are, but the idea that iphones aren't selling in Japan is the result of somebody trying to manipulate Apple's stock price. It's all exposed here.