You were the one who said you paid $299, not me. I wanted to know how you found one for one third of the normal price, and the answer is, you didn’t—you are paying AT&T by the month for your phone.
FYI, these phones are normally unlocked. Yours is locked because you chose to buy it through AT&T.
No, they're not. Apple was not selling unlocked iphones at any of their stores to prevent scalping and gray market phones. While I was waiting in line Monday with my girlfriend three asian got in line and when the concierge inquired which iphone they wished to reserve, they replied they wanted three unlocked iPhone 6 64GB each. They were informed that Apple would not sell any unlocked phones. They were welcome to buy a carrier locked phone of their choice for full retail, but Apple's contracts required the carrier would have to do the unlocking. And at this time, no carrier is unlocking iPhone 6 or 6 Plus until after the China rollout to prevent gray market smuggling. China's customs is aggressively confiscating iPhones as they are brought into China because the Chinese government has dug in its heels about approving them for use on its networks.
And, frankly, Dino, it's none of your business how I'm paying for my phone. I was talking about one way I could have bought my iPhone 6, one most people go with.
The fact is I got a better deal than that. I'm actually not buying on contract, I'm buying on AT&T's Next program, which costs me about $36 a month for the iPhone, which means I get to take advantage of AT&T's off contract rates. . . and with their family plan it's even better..
But a year from now, when the next new iPhone comes out, I can trade (or, I can sell it privately, pay off the balance) this one in and upgrade. I won't have to wait two years until my service contract, which I would have to pay for monthly anyway, expires to get a new phone. My out of pocket cost, if I DID keep it until I owned it, are only $720 plus $56 tax, or $776 for a $950 phone, not counting sales tax. . . And I got $275 back on my old iPhone on a debit card which I first used to pay the sales tax, so it now has $224 left. . . Meaning my iPhone 6, if I keep it until I own it, will cost me only $552. I'm being subsidized by AT&T's buying power and promotion. I suspect, I will upgrade when the iPhone 6s comes out. . . then again, a year later, when the iPhone 7 is released. I can afford it. It costs me no more, in fact even less, than upgrading every two years.