Looking at the prices for unlocked iPhones, this doesn't come as a big surprise. The 3GS is especially expensive, at around €800 for the 16GB model, and over €900 for the 32GB one. That's a lot for a phone, most consumers won't consciously spend that much, just hidden in the monthly fees, which have to be in a similar ballpark to other tariffs.

However, I suspect the "old" 8GB 3G model, which is around €500 these days, has been generating a tidy profit for the operators since the release of the 3GS. I wouldn't be surprised if this pattern repeated every year: the new model is the loss leader, the previous model, profitable after having come down in price, feeds off the awareness of the high end one.