Apple Thoughts: Apple Now Offering No-Contract iPhones Like AT&T

"Apple has joined AT&T in offering iPhones without a contract at a hefty price. Last week, AT&T announced plans to sell iPhone 3Gs without a two-year contract for $599 and $699, but Apple did not respond to inquiries as to whether it had the same idea in mind. Now AppleInsider is reporting that the company has indeed rolled out the similar no-contact offer at its stores, which makes sense, given the tight partnership between the two companies."

AT&T is actually doing Apple one better by selling the iPhone 3G at the subsidized prices of $199 USD for 8 Gig and $299 USD for 16 Gigs, with a two-year extension on the contract of course. Small detail. Apple competes with this by not limiting the customer to just one iPhone. This just adds fuel to the rumor of a new iPhone in June, since last year the same type of thing was done to get inventory levels down prior to the launch of the iPhone 3G. We shall see!