$200. I'm in!

giggidy giggidy

$199?! That's highway robbery!!

sounds too good to be true - like some Apple fanboy who kisses the feet of a Steve Jobs poster every morning decided to start a rumor because he has nothing better to do with his pathetic, worthless life.

Wow, I feel cheated. I just got one in November and now its half the price I paid and better. WTF!!!!

I'll be getting one anyways though because I am a Apple lemming.

So would this be about same size as the Touch?

Yeah, it doesn't really make any sense.

Why would apple effectively screw themselves like that? You take away one of the best features of the original in that you just take it home and do it yourself without having to deal with an AT&T store associate.

If they get the SDK rolling out some cool aps, and make it so you can run more than one app at a time (I know there is a rumor, but I want to see it), AND, I can get a good plan, I might have to try this.

My HTC Mogul is been great, and beats the current iPhone's in just about every respect except UI, and I pay $33 a month with Sprint to get every damn option they offer.

But they are doing such cool things with the iPhone, and 3G, GPS, and 3rd Party Apps were the main reasons I stayed away.

Oh yeah, that and AT&T, that part still sucks.

@tande04: They didn't say you couldn't sign up with iTunes. They could possibly just credit your account for $200 when you're done with the process.

"people buying and exporting will be paying the higher price"

I think many of us enter in this situation.

@dantaylor08: The article forgot to mention that battery replacements will now be free for life at any Apple Store.

@hiphophipotamus:

first of all, November was 5-6 months ago, i wouldn't really call that "just"

and second, this is just rumor, the price hasn't dropped yet

so keep yer pants on

Just a hunch, but I think this may help sell some iPhones.

Not that they needed help selling them anyway.

lol I cant believe how many people are buying into this. If its a report about Apple it must be true!!!!!!!!

This actually makes sense. Apple will continue to up it's market share and get continued subscription fees. If you think they saturated the market with the iPod wait until this...oh wait they are locked to AT&T. Never mind.

no copy/paste no care

"Apple will cut off shipments of the old phone in order to clear up inventory and give a subtle hint that you should wait before buying."

Aren't those two contradictory goals?

*Caugh* B.S. *Caugh*
I highly doubt Fortune on this one. A lot of people love the fact that they can just buy an iPhone at the Apple Store, so I doubt Apple would make sales exclusive to AT&T stores. The whole first gen users pay more is very unlikely, if Apple does do this expect reimbursement just like when the iPhone's original price was reduced to $399. But hey things do go this route, customers could just purchase iPhones online.

@Tim Faulkner: The subtle hint is unintentional, and is just a side effect of them not having more shipments coming in. I'm sure they don't want anyone to know that a new one is coming until it's here.

This will def get me to port over from VZW.

"Current first-gen iPhone users probably won't get this $200 subsidy when upgrading either, unless perhaps they renew for another 2 years."
Don't you already have to renew for another 2 years in order to qualify for a device upgrade?

Whoawho-whoops! I just put my iPhone on eBay!

@tande04: To keep AT&T happy since Apple has been screwing them with most customers preferring to go direct to Apple rather than through AT&T. And they wouldn't be eliminating the "best feature," just encouraging customers to support their carrier via one discounted option.

@CGrant: No, only the discount would be available at AT&T.

But if true, I'm sure my parents would love a used 4-gig for their anniversary in August...

@Jason Chen: Agreed, I just found Fortune's "to avoid previous discounting snafu" strategy highly suspect. Of course, the taps shut off and shift over at some point. I doubt Apple will have actual trouble clearing inventory since the gray market is so ripe. Jobs will announce early because he wasn't the glory of the reveal to himself, not the FCC. Until then, trying to measure retail inventories is just as accurate as any tea leaf reading... especially when everyone pegs it in the next 1-2 months anyway with an announce at WWDC.

@Tim Faulkner: "he wasn't the glory of the reveal to himself"

he WANTS

@Jason Chen: But to be fair it doesn't say that it will either.

I just generally don't buy this one. They didn't have any problems getting to where they are now with AT&T not subsidizing the phone the first time around. With all of the talk about changing the game and what not I don't see any reason why they'd feel the need to do it this time.

It may of been a push from AT&T who thinks that there are too many jailbroken phones on other networks but A. From what we've seen so far it doesn't seem like they're the ones with the pull in the relationship and B. there has been a question for some time about what percent of jailbroken phones are running on anything different. You couldn't even get the 3G on it that way so AT&T pretty much has a captive market in that regard.

If they want to pull in more people I think that apple will just market it a lower price point with no subsidies either way.

Don't call BS just yet. It might be possible that AT&T is offering their own subsidy outside of any contractual relationship with Apple. That would explain why it's limited to AT&T stores -- not because they can't credit an account activated on iTunes, but because sales outside of AT&T stores don't allow for the oh so profitably accessory sales.

Comment on AT The phone is cheaper because Apple will be collecting more subscription revenue via a higher cost 3G data package that will more than likely be $30+/mo Also, plan on having to activate the phone in-store if you want the extra $200 on the phone.

@ndonahue:

ding ding ding

...so wait a minute.

If I get it from an Apple store, it will be $399.99. What am I getting for the extra 200 bones...

...If AT&T is now subbing it, does this mean the Apple Store iphones will be unlcocked?

If this is the case, the iPhone will seriously sell like crazy -

I have been waiting for both 3G and a price drop to get one. Looks like I finaly will.

If it's too good to be true then it probably is...

As already mentioned here: Unless APple drops the price of ALL iPhones to $199, I can't see the AT&T Stores being allowed to get such a head's up over the Apple Stores.

It'd be incredible if this happens, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

is it $199 for the 8 Gb and $299 for the 16 Gb?
are they adding a 32 Gb at $399?

@ dantaylor08:

Any story is worthy of whining about Apple users, eh Dan? "Waaahhh, Steve Jobs. Fan..b..b..boys (sniff). Shiny plastic!!! Boo hoo!"

Pathetic, bitter little troll.

April Fool's Day is gone, Gizmodo, there's no need for this post

@dantaylor08: bitter much?

Kick-awesome.

Please let it be true. It makes sence. I bet this would mean the new iPhone will be more open to other carriers, too, without all the hacky-hacky.

Doesn't matter to me much, though, because I like At&t and I'm stickin' with 'em.

This could be true, you pay $399 at the store and then when the unit is activated you get a $200 rebate back from them, makes sense cause it will make anyone think twice before unlocking it and going to another provider

@DW: Maybe Apple realizes they can clear all of their inventory to exporters anyway? They've experienced the sell-outs, not AT&T.

Sure, Apple has all the power and it seems bizarre, but I think Apple needs to sweeten the deal with AT&T to keep them happy. By all accounts, unlocking is rampant and many of the new markets Apple will enter will be without carrier lock-in. That can't make AT&T happy. But if their relationship which has been obscenely lucrative to Apple actually leads to real marketshare gains and subscriber contracts (which coincidentally are more lucrative to Apple than just a hardware sale)... Hells, yeah, they both will benefit happily.

Not that I'm saying it's true, just not insane.

@all nah not really, just like laughing at the responses I get from you guys :)

count me in.

I'm calling bullshit, especially when I see things like "according to a person familiar with the strategy"

@DW:

They won't get a heads up on Apple, its still going to cost ATT the wholesale price of the phone regardless. Shit 10 million phones at $300 wholesale each who gives a rate ass who sells them. Joe SHit the rag man could sell them for all Steve cares he gets his $3,000,000,000 plus untold $$$ per phone from ATT.

im gonna have to agree with graffiksguru.

SHENANIGANS.

With all the talk of unlocked iphones in Australia and other countries where a locked-in phone just won't work, I'm ready to believe this. My guess is:

$399 at an apple store - unlocked
$199 at AT&T with a 2-year contract

I'm coming back to this article in two months and commenting about how sweet I am for guessing it right! :)

@jcouvret -
Wow you're a genius! you just claimed for yourself the prediction this article just made - did you even read it? :)

First off, I really want to love the iPhone, but I can't. I received it on April 5, and today is April 24, and I hate it more than the Treo 650 and 700's I've dealt with over the past three years.

The iPhone is a poorly designed, incredibly buggy device that technologically is a major failure on many fronts. The hardware and software DO NOT LIVE up to the hype. I always wait at least a year or more to purchase new products from Apple, but with the iPhone I should have waited three or more years.

From the lack of tactile keys that is supposed to be the best interface ever designed for a smart phone, yet results in 40% keystroke entry mistakes to the distortion that the iPhone feeds out to every audio and video device on the planet, it's the worst communications device I have ever experienced.

The iPhone distorts my computer screen, the car audio system to all loudspeakers, either active or passive, including high-end shielded near-field studio monitors, from my Apple iSticks on my computer, high-end surround sound stereo system in my living room to the frigging clock radio.

The static this iPhone kicks ou