A frind of mine is travelling to the USA in August and is planning on buying an iPhone4 while he is there - he says that they are only $199 there as opposed to approx £500 here.

Is this correct? Would an iPhone from the USA work over here?

If so, I would guess that we will be seeing loads popping up on ebay soon!

$199 is the price for it on contract with AT&T in America, and is locked to AT&T, so it won't work here and he will be stuck in an American contract... so not a good idea.

Why do people keep getting this idea that a sim free iPhone in the USA is $199. I don't think you can even buy a sim free iPhone in the USA because of apples aggreement with AT&T

Yeah, I think that's right. And when the 3GS initially came out you required a US social security number before you could get one. Not sure if this is a requirement of the new one though

I believe Apple are selling a 'commitment free' iPhone in the states but it's still locked to AT&T and doesn't work out any cheaper.

In the small prink on the US apple store it says it is $599 or $699 for a non contract iphone4.

But as others have said those phones are still locked to AT&T and will not work on any other network

Surely you could Jailbreak and unlock.

That would invalidate the warranty, so if it breaks you can't do anything about it.

Indeed and remember you would have sales tax on top of the $599 and the constant cat and mouse routine of Apple updates stoping your phone from working and waiting for a new hack. You are far better to just spend £499 and get a sim-free iPhone here.

plus if bought in america uk apple stores tend to stay away from the handsets when it comes to something wrong with them

Not entirely true. The wi-fi stopped working on my jailbroken iPhone. I just restored it and took it back to apple and they swapped it for another one. It is a big myth.

Yes a restore would return it to it's original software.

Possibly, but it can take considerable time after a new iPhone is launched for the hackers to work out how to jailbreak it, and often considerably longer still for them to work out how to unlock it for other carriers (jailbreaking and unofficial unlocking are two distinct hacks). Then of course, as others have pointed out, there's the cat and mouse with Apple for future OS updates.

Besides, the US $599 and $699 "no commitment" prices equate to about £475 and £555 respectively (using an exchange rate of 1.48 and adding on VAT@17.5%), which already isn't that far off the £499 and £599 SIM free prices here in the UK. However that isn't the whole story, because those $599 and $699 prices don't include Sales taxes, which vary in the US not only from state to state, but also county to county. In New York City for example, you pay a total of 8.875% Sales Tax, which would bring those prices up to $652 and $761. By contrast, the £499 and £599 we pay here in the UK work out to be $629 and $755 - so it's actually cheaper to buy in the UK than NYC, and your phone is factory unlocked rather than locked to AT&T.

People don't seem to be able to recognize the difference between "PAYG" and "Commitment Free". If you buy a "Commitment Free" iPhone, you still need to pay for a contract. The only difference is that you are not locked in for any period of time.

Because of pathetic reporting like this:

That particular quote? This very website.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...-iphone-4.html

Wouldn't quite say its pathetic reporting, just inaccurate. Even in the Jobs keynote, those were the given prices, but its assumed that the devices are being bought on a 24 month contract.

Don't forget you would have to add import duty and possibly a handling charge. So it could be even more expensive to buy in the US.