Coming Soon: Contract-Free iPhone

We hear you: You've always wanted an iPhone, but you've got commitment issues. You don't want to hop into bed with AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon for two whole years. Well, good news: Soon Cricket, a regional carrier owned by Leap Wireless, will be offering a contract-free pre-paid iPhone for the, erm, low-low price of $500 for the 4S, or $400 for the 4, CNN reports.

That's a far cry from the $200 and $100 those phones cost, respectively, on one of the contract carriers, of course, but hey, freedom isn't free, pal. But once you've got the phone, you'll pay a comparatively cheap $55 a month for talk, text, and data. Cricket estimates that will save customers about $1,000 compared to the average contract price over two years. But you get what you pay for: Cricket's network is no match for the big boys, reaching just 60 million Americans. (More cricket stories.)