As of last Thursday you can now purchase an iPhone without signing a contract. You can ether get a contract free iPhone at an AT&T store or directly through the Apple store. You can pay the full price of $599 for the 8GB model or $699 for the 16GB version.

If you are a existing customer of AT&T you can purchase only one for the full price. But you can buy as many as you want from Apple and you don’t need to have been an existing contract holder with AT&T. You can activate your new iPhone through iTunes from the comfort of your home.

It is possible to unlock the iPhone to work with other mobile carriers but is not supported. For US customers your only other option besides AT&T is T-Mobile but cant support the full 3G speeds the iPhone is capable of.

The reason behind the new sales strategy is Apple wants to sell off the current inventory of iPhones just in time for the release of their new 2009 model. Apple plans to release the new iPhone sometime in June, right around the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference.

[via Gizmodo]

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