If you really wanted an iPhone 3G but never wanted to adhere to the carefully cultivated Jobnesian smartphone setup (or you didn’t want to pay a massive extra for freedom), here’s your chance!

Through buy.com, you can get a “never-locked” iPhone 3G for only $200. The special label applies because this is a rare, fully-functional, and affordable unit that has never been jailbroken. It enjoys full support courtesy of Apple’s warranty, and will not break when new software updates are installed. Most importantly, being “never-locked”, the phone works with any network provider.

What are the catches? First and foremost, the $200 gets you a refurbed unit. It’s not brand-new. Also, from all indications, you still have to commit to a two-year plan from AT&T. Unfortunately, the offer is currently “temporarily sold out”, so it’s impossible to fully verify this offering.

Thanks Peter The Mordo Juan! Image courtesy of Apple Inc.

Yippee kay yay if you’ve dreamed of owning an iPhone without committing to a two-year AT&T contract! Seems that by March 26, the service provider will start offering Apple’s smartphone with no strings attached for at least $600.

$600 is a lot of money, and I’m not even sure if that price gets you full iPhone functionality. For instance, will Visual Voicemail run on other networks? To be sure, unsubsidized iPhones aren’t really new. The French and Germans required that their local counterparts also be available without any sort of lock-in.

Is the relatively high price worth it? Gearfuse implies that unsubsidized units free the user from the jailbreaking game, definitely a benefit worth considering. But I imagine bypassing Apple’s and AT&T’s restrictions will remain in vogue, so long as really good apps only work on jailbroken units.

(image and source: BGR)

The word is that AT&T “is working on a new service that would let Apple iPhone owners use their devices as a modem for their laptop computers.” And of course, there will be a charge for this functionality, which of course is doable on other phones, running on other service providers’ networks.

Look, I totally understand that AT&T has to make money. After all, putting up all that infrastructure isn’t cheap. But charging for phone-as-modem functionality is like charging users for using Bluetooth. Why ask people to pay for a feature that’s already built into the phone?

Even worse, Apple manages to get off without even so much as a complaint, if the comments on the source article are any indication. This is a manufacturer that decided to play along with a service provider’s unreasonable scheme people!

(image by sfgate.com)

Check out this usatoday.com article. Of interest are:

• The fact that AT&T is paying “about $300 per device”. No wonder the iPhone 3G is superficially cheap!
• The impression that the iPhone made the mobile web “dead simple”. Despite the existence of Nokia and it’s very capable MiniMap browser. But then again, you can’t argue with the results of effective marketing.
• Coverage of AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, who is credited with AT&T’s cozy relationship with Apple. He’s been lauded as “all for wireless” and having the balls to sign up for what’s currently a “no-brainer” deal.

Surely, Apple’s and AT&T’s efforts to keep the phone locked have been good for the bottom line (which is what any company should push for anyway, just to be clear). But isn’t there a way to make money and “share the wealth”, so to speak?