Contrary to what you might have read on various blogs and news sites, there is no way to buy the iPhone 3G without a contract (i.e. plan or subscription) in USA.
I recently spend my summer holiday in the States and went to an AT&T and an Apple Store in Boston. At both places I explained that I wanted to buy an iPhone without a contract since I live in Europe and have no need for the AT&T-hook up.
The answer I got at both places was: No can do! The iPhone is not purchasable without a two year AT&T contract - which according to the sales guy at the Apple Store comes to a total of a couple of thousand dollars.
The Apple Store guy even looked at me all puzzled and said: But Sir, the iPhone is available in Denmark, why don't you buy it there?
heh, heh...
Well, Telia which sells the phone here in Denmark seriously over-prices the damn thing - and even charges you extra for unlocking it. All in all the gadget winds up costing around 1200 dollars compared to the rumored 400-600 dollars for the American zero-contract iPhone. Besides... the Danish iPhone has been sold out for more than a month now.
You have to do a little digging on the the AT&T corporate Web Site but then you'll find a press release indicating that in the future AT€T does plans to sell the phone without a contract. But there is no saying if "in the future" means tomorrow, in the next couple of months or next year!
