I'm curious...

For all those that complain that Apple products are priced way too high, what is your opinion of the 3G iPhone?

There is a LOT packed into a phone that is only $199.

Added a link for ya! Apple G3
Never even touched an iphone. But the new price seems decent, I remember razors were like $250 when they first came out.

Will be ordering mine July 11th.

All I need to do now is find some of those first adopters, point at them, and laugh.

HAHA - You paid 2x as much for less features.

SUCKER!

And realize that the combo of an iPod and my Blackberry is significantly more useful than the iPhone. Plus the BB is free.

Always a catch:

http://gizmodo.com/5014909/att-memo-to-retail-managers-shows-iphone-3g-policy

From my cousin who works at AT&T:

Can I use it on any provider other than AT&T?

If not, I'm not interested.

only AT&T has the iPhone. You can buy one and hack it to work on any network. I know of someone on this site that can probably tell you how to do it even, since he has his on TMobil.

Getting rid of my 16gb iPod Touch and combining phone & ipod into a single device with the new iphone. Not currently on a contract, so I don't think I'll have any problems. I do need to transfer my current cellphone#, so I hope that's not gonna be a big pain in the ass.

I have a my Cracked Iphone for about 7 months now. I LOVE it. I applaude the fact apple lowered the price, I might donate my old phone to my wife and pick up a 3G when it is released in Canada July 11th.

My phone bill is $100 a month I get 300 day time minutes all the options and unlimited Data with Rogers. It is high but a pretty good deal in Canada. I like the fact I can use my phone with any carrier. When we go to Europe I just buy a pay-as-you-go card and use that in the phone.

Not any network, any compatible network. It's a GSM phone, ATT and TMobile I believe are the only GSM networks in the US. Verizon, and Sprint use CDMA. Different technology. ATT exclusive contract with Apple ends next year, hopefully then we see it go to other networks. Which is one reason ATT is locking you into a contract that extends past their exclusivity agreement. Funny how they didn't make you sign a 2yr contract while their were the only ones that had the phone, and got people to pay full price for it. Now that that's not an option any, ATT is subsiding the phone and getting people to agree to a two year contract. Very clever, getting three years out of two!

Last I heard that ATT's 3G network was much behind the buildout of Verizon's and Sprint's EVDO networks (and EVDO-A which is even faster), but that my be just company propaganda don't know for sure.

While this is true with the old one, and probably can be done with the new one, the new one REQUIRES in store activation. So, sure, you can take it home and hack it, but only AFTER you've signed up for a 2 year vommitment.
So to use it with another carrier, you'd have to break the 2 year contract and thus throw a bunch of $$ away. Terrific.

Unless I'm reading this wrong...

I'm constantly amazed I am able to function in my day-to-day life without owning a single Apple product.

Oh. Well, except for the Apple Shuffle I used for a week before the POS went tits-up on me.
The $10 refurbished Rio I replaced it with has lasted me for three years.

Other than that, wow. How do I manage?

I was under the impression it was a 5 year deal.

I too could live my life without an Apple product, but I choose not to, because when comparing competing products, the Apple one is almost always the one more integrated, better thought out, more stylish, etc. Apple products sell not because there is a core group of people that just thing everything from Apple is perfect (I'm sure there are more Anti-Apple people just because it's made by Apple), but because Apple is very good at designing a product that is easy for the masses to use and fits a need that may not have existed before, desktop publishing, GUI'ed OS, MP3 player, etc.

Continue your Apple free lifestyle, we're all happy for you.

Your right. I always thought it was just two years, but search shows that it is 5. Oh well, so much for the clever plan I was giving ATT to get an extra year out of it. Maybe it's just to stop the cracking then, since you can't get one now without a service agreement.

"Maybe it's just to stop the cracking then... "

Bingo!

Not so.

www.TUAW.com

Daniel - Was that you just on KRLD?

Not so cheap considering this: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,146893/article.html

An extra $10 a month for the 3G iPhone ($30 vs $20) equates to $240 over the life of a now-mandatory 2-year contract. Sounds like the new iPhone actually went up in price.

DO YOU HAVE TO TYP IN ALLLLLL CAPS TO GET A JOB AT AT&T LOL WTF?!?!!!!11!!1ELEVEN

The part of the article related to this was "speculation" and "reading between the lines".

To say "not so" is bit premature.
Those interested will just have to see which way the chips fall...

I am also using an unlocked iPhone on tmobile. It does everything I wanted it for and more. It will be interesting to see how the new ones will be obtained to use on other networks but if Tmobile has 3G in my area I will do my best to get one. I have considered switching to AT&T but have not found enough of a reason to make the change yet.

I got mine for 400 dollars and believe I have gotten my return on investment for as much as I use it.

Yeah - that REALLY sucks. I've been thinking about getting one for a long time and I've been waiting for the 3G.... but the monthly plan was already at the limit of what I can stomach paying... the extra $10 crosses a "sorry... too expensive...f%#% you" line for me.