iPhone pricing
Telstra has come to the party and will also be releasing the iPhone on July 11. Unlike Vodafone and Optus, Telstra has also released its pricing plans. Contracts are for 2 years (pretty standard) and a $30/mo plan will allow you to pay $279 for the 8 gig model and $399 for 16 gig model. There’s no upfront cost if you go on a $100/mo plan. You won’t be able to buy an iPhone from Telstra without a plan.
Vodafone and Optus are taking pre-registrations too, but have not released pricing. It’s rumoured that you’ll be able to buy a phone outright (and get prepaid services), but this may be costly. It’s not clear, if this is the case, whether the phones will be unlocked.
No word from anyone about how much data is going to cost. I have a feeling it’s not going to be pretty. In Canada, a bit of consumer backlash occurred when local carrier Rogers released pricing for its plans. C$60/mo only buys 400mb of data. (US$70/mo buys unlimited data in the US.) It’s going to be even uglier in Australia, I reckon.
“Telstra consumer group managing director David Moffatt said it was an exciting development for the Australian mobile phone market…”. But remember that only a year ago, newspapers were reporting that “Telstra has all but ruled itself out of the running to carry Apple’s new iPhone mobile when it is released here next year with a senior executive launching a withering critique of the device. … There’s an old saying – stick to your knitting – and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that’s not their knitting,’ Mr Winn told AAP.”
8:58pm (GMT +10.00) 
Here’s an Aussie iPhone app: Recipes for your iPhone Now you can look up recipes while you are shopping or cooking!