Apple To Soon Begin Selling Contract-Free iPhones

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Soon, you’ll be able to buy a contract-free, but not unlocked, iPhone from Apple Stores. The phones will still be tied to AT&T (unfortunately for those who don’t like that provider) and will only recognize their SIM cards. The phones will be sold at “list price” which is considerably higher than the usual price you’d regularly pay.

Reports say you could always buy an iPhone at the “list price” but you were forced to show proof of an AT&T account. Users interested in buying a contract-free iPhone may do so at Apple Stores, but oddly enough, the internal memo to Apple Store managers limits them to selling only one “free” iPhone per customer per day.

Even the “oh, this second one is a gift” line won’t work – as the memo specifically says one per customer is one per customer, gift or not. Even odder, Apple is imposing a 10 unit limit on contract-free iPhones, total.

As you can imagine, the prices are steep. $499 for the 8GB 3G and $599 for the 16GB 3GS. Obviously, it isn’t impossible to jailbreak or unlock your new phone, although those who just want an iPhone sans phone probably are better off buying an iPod Touch.

Feel free to speculate as to why Apple is doing this or why Apple has strange restrictions on the number of devices you can purchase. Tech pundits have commented this could have something to do with the Nexus One now being able to be run on AT&T’s network at an unlocked price. As much as I’d like to say that Apple is one step closer to offering the iPhone on other US mobile carriers or selling unlocked iPhones, it doesn’t appear to be that way.