It has now been a good few hours since Steve Jobs did ‘his thing’ and now it is being reported that the $199 and $299 price points for the new iPhone 3G are just too good to be true.

Is seems that the stated prices include carrier subsidises meaning that the end user gets the handset at (considerably) less than the price that the carrie pays - the idea being that in the long run, 18 months plus, the carrier will make back the ‘loss’ through subscription fees and so on.

All this leads to the sad realisation that the carriers worldwide are not going to subsidise a handset which may not be activated on their network with a contract.  In short this means that you have to activate (sign the contract) in store before being able to take your handset home.

So it seems the only way to get an iPhone without paying your carrier a boatload of cash each month for the rest of your life is to steal one.  Don’t steal, it’s bad!

[poll id="8"]