My laundry list of issues with the original iPhone has slowly been addressed. Apple has basically covered them all now that instant messaging, copy & paste and improved battery life with the new iPhone 3G. But there’s still one giant glaring problem. And that’s AT&T.

Those crooks at AT&T were so desperate to get the iPhone, that they got suckered into a bad deal, and they’ve been taking it out on the customers ever since. At the time, they had to do something. Because if Verizon picked up the iPhone, AT&T would be dead in the water. But they gave up too much.

So now if an iPhone 3G owner wants to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS (now being called the iPhone 3G$), they have to shell out $699. That is absolutely outrageous (Ars Technica has posted some additional info from AT&T about the pricing structure). And it can’t make Apple happy. While that may keep 3G users locked into their AT&T contracts without AT&T having to subsidize another phone for them, those are additional units that AT&T is preventing Apple from selling. (more…)