Well, as one might have assumed:
Quote:
"No, only available with a two-year contract." Pretty cut and dried there. We're also told that there will be no contract-free price on postpaid service; the one and only way to get in on this action will be to re-up your commitment to AT&T. Unofficially, we've been slipped information that AT&T's typical upgrade eligibility rules apply when signing the new contract, and there will be a separate (read: higher) pricing scheme for "non-qualified upgrades." These prices have not yet been set.

So yeah, for a vast majority of new iPhone purchasers, the actual price of the phone is not $199. I sort of feel it was disingenuous to not mention anything about this in the keynote. The actual cost is probably going to be the same as before or not much less.

Naturally, I'll be in the same boat with any other phone that I might have an eye one, since I'm only part of the way through the first year of my two year contract, but the difference is that when all other phones come out, they're upfront about their price being a subsidized one.


Edited by Dignan (10/06/2008 12:53)
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Matt