[mountain_man]

The phone costs 199 and 75 a month. It is expensive, but why exaggerate?

[allenbrunson]

he's not really exaggerating, though. i bought my iphone in the first few days after release, and i did indeed pay 600 bucks for it. it has come down since then, but there are those of us who paid that.

i can't remember the exact details, but the cost for the data plan went up after they introduced 3g support, and dropped the 200 free text messages per month.

[tptacek]

It cost you more than $199. You just don't realize it, because Apple and your carrier did a good job of snookering you.