If the rumors are true AT&T seems to be looking to cash in on all the potential users unwilling to shell out $400 USD. After almost one year on the market one would think that all the users that “had to have an iPhone” now have one. New possible features (3G and GPS) probably won’t attract too many new iPhone users, but a $200 USD rebate definitely would. The $400+ price point was definitely hard for many to justify, especially if you don’t really need to check your email every 5 minutes on the road. $200-$300 still isn’t exactly pocket change for most, but it should be more appealing to what AT&T would hope is thousands of new iPhone customers willing to sign their name to a 2 year contract. $200 loss up front isn’t much when you stand to earn a guaranteed amount of at least ~$1440 ($59.99 x 24 months : current lowest plan). Of course there will still be many of us willing to pay full price for the latest and greatest gadget (or those of us already in a 2 year contract due to the first iPhone release).

Lastly the growth of the iPhone customer base will help push further development for both the apps developed via the Apple SDK and those web based, like Ta-da Lists™.   Increased connections speeds and the rumor of flash/java for the 3G iPhone will further increase the possibilities in the web apps realm.

Let’s also hope Apple decides to let us send/receive MMS this round.