$299 iPhone: the dream, the advertisement

I know, you're probably sick of hearing me wax rhapsodic about the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone. It's not going to stop anytime soon (at least, not for 105 days or so). Especially not today.

Because today, I was thrilled to see an email subject line from my buddies at Engadget: something about $300 and iPhone. Those two concepts were adjacent to one another, causing me unreasonable joy, and immediately I click-click-clicked away.

Sure enough, a big glossy photo of a leaked Cingular iPhone ad proclaimed that the 4GB version of the most-wanted mobile phone would be offered for $299 with a two-year wireless service contract, starting at $39.99 per month. I have Cingular and I've already called: I'm eligible for "upgrade" starting in March, so I'm definitely going to plead my case for the iPhone when said advertisement becomes reality.

Many critics of Apple's take-over-the-mobile-world strategy have said that consumers won't pay $499 for a new mobile phone. First, I think those critics are largely wrong (I keenly remember paying $495 for a Palm Pilot six or seven years ago, so there), and secondly: $299 is a lot more palatable. The rumor doesn't seem to have had much affect on Apple's stock (and maybe it's just not widely-spread enough, yet): it was down 38 cents, or about half a percent, to $84.83 for the day.