Staff at Apple’s flagship New York, Fifth Avenue store confirmed on Thursday that customers are now permitted to buy unlimited quantities of iPhones without an AT&T contract.
The news comes in the same week as UK online retailer Play started selling Sim-free iPhones on its website. The 8GB iPhone is available for £549.99, the 16GB iPhone for £599.99.
Play confirmed to gadget website T3 that the Sim-free deal comes backed with a warranty, and is available to use on all networks, rather than being unlocked from a network, unlike the US deal which is still locked to the AT&T network.
US customers can now buy iPhones without a contract at the full non-subsidised price of $599 for the 8G iPhone and $699 for the 16G model, compared with $199 and $299 with a contract.
Speculation is rife that Apple's change in policy is designed to shift a backlog of iPhones as the company preps a new model for a summer release, possibly timed for the recently announced 2009 Worldwide Developers Conference, the annual gathering of Apple's developer community, from 8-12 June.
If this proves true, Apple would be one of the few companies able to clear unwanted stock not at a discount but at a price significantly higher then being offered under contract.
Meanwhile following Play's offer of iPhones without a contract on Monday, other UK suppliers have apparently begun following suit. An iPhone 3G 8GB was spotted in one London newspaper this week for £262.34, brand new, boxed and sealed, although the deal may well prove to good to be true.
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Comments said on Fri, 27 Mar 2009
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James said on Fri, 27 Mar 2009
I wonder if they told O2?
@comments said on Sat, 28 Mar 2009
Have you got an iPhone 3.0 Beta and are trying out cut and paste?
Cutting and pasting the comments text into a comments box? What an odd comment...
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