Apparently you can now purchase an iPhone from an Apple Store without an AT&T plan and its official according to an article over on 9to5mac. They say that Apple’s new policy is for anyone to simply step into an Apple Store and purchase the iPhone off AT&T contract.
Of course the iPhone is apparently still locked to the AT&T network and thus will require an AT&T SIM unless you intend jailbreaking the handset. So just how they can be an unlocked iPhone I’m not too sure as you’re basically still tied to AT&T.
Anyway, stepping into an Apple Store to purchase your iPhone will cost you $499 for an 8GB, $599 for the 16GB and $699 for the 32GB iPhone and customers can purchase one iPhone per day up to ten iPhones.
Apparently an Apple Store employee has confirmed that the iPhone’s will still be tied to the Big Blue, but “everyone knows it takes 2 minutes to unlock them.” So it would appear this Apple plan is just an off contract pricing scheme.