American iPhone devotees will soon be able to get their hands on the world’s coolest phone™ without being locked into a two year AT&T contract.

The second generation 3G iPhone will set you back a rather whopping $599 for the 8 GB flavour, or an even more whopping $699 for the 16 GB version. Apple hopes the move might counteract the widespread hacking that went on last time around, which saw punters freeing the first generation handsets from the locked contract with AT&T or O2 here in Britain. Buyers of the tariff free iPhone will be free to pop a pay-as-you-go SIM card in or just use the handset as an overblown MP3 and video player with WiFi capability. Why anybody would want to do that is open to question, but the choice is there.

These unlocked deals will see Apple taking a subsidy from operators for each phone sold, which is estimated at around $300 by iSupply. This marks a change from the traditional revenue strategy which saw Apple taking a cut of the monthly charge.

Monthly tariffs will, of course, still be available and will remain the most popular option for most people. According to AT&T, contracts will range from $70 to $130 per month. The price of the handset for customers signing themselves up to one of the two-year contracts will be a ‘snip’ at only $199 for the 8 GB model or $299 for its bigger brother.  

The new iPhone will go on sale on July 11^th in the States, and Apple is predicting worldwide sales of 10 million units by the end of 2008.