I've normally countered complaints about Apple's high prices by saying that the high quality and durability of their products is the reasoning for this. However, I must say that they've taken the price thing a bit too far this time. American telecom giant AT&T is going to start offering no-contract iPhones starting in April 2009. So basically, you can now get your phone without having to sign up for those stupid three year contracts. The catch, you'd better be ready to fork out a lot of dough. The 8gb model will sell for $599 and the 16gb model will sell for $699 USD. Think that's expensive? UK retailer Play.com is selling SIM-card free iPhones at £550 and £600 for the 8gb and 16gb models respectively. Once converted to Canadian currency, that's nearly $1000 for an iPhone; and I thought the guy at T-Booth was BSing me when he told me that's how much it was worth while pushing the usual extended warranty garbage.

Considering the iPhone is just an iPod Touch with a cell phone and GPS chip inside, I can't imagine those two components alone could more than double the price. Maybe $399 tops for the 8gb model and even that's pushing it. You do pay more for the luxury of being contract free but this is just a blatant ripoff.

Source: CNET, The Register