iPhone to cost only $300-400 with contract?

If the iPhone's prices of $500 and $600 with contract were a little too much for your wallet to stomach, you might take solace in some new info allegedly leaked from a Cingular AT&T consumer survey (Wait: do wallets really have stomachs?). Engadget has the details on the possibility of the iPhone actually costing a full $200 less, putting the price points at $300 and $400 (for the 4GB and 8GB models, respectively) with a contract, meaning that the $500 and $600 prices could ultimately be for out-of-contract purchases.

Now take this all with a grain of salt; this info and the accompanying image would be easy to fake, and the designer in me says it could be exactly that. Nevertheless, a romp through iPhone dreamland couldn't hurt, and more realistic prices of $300 and $400 would put a lot of smiles on the faces of iPhone hopefuls. Heck, at the least, it would mean Steve Ballmer has a little less to say about Apple's first mobile phone.