AT&T has released the new pricing scheme for Apple's iPhone. Expectedly, the smartphone will be available at $199 for the 8 GB version and $299 for 16GB, with the two-year contract. Also, AT&T will offer a no-commitment option of $599 for 8GB and $699 for 16GB.

According to AT&T’s web site the service plans would cost between $70 and $130 a month. All four plans will offer unlimited use of the device's internet and e-mail services, Visual Voicemail, unlimited mobile-to-mobile and rollover minutes, while only the $130 plan offers unlimited anytime minutes. The plans do not include texting, which is available in four plans at additional cost. For $5 you get 200 messages, for 10 bucks more you get 1500 and for yet another five dollars there's unlimited SMS texting (for those texting nuts who write more than 50 messages a day).

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Apple, as with all its products, charges significantly more for the iPhone. The markup is few-fold, as with its other products. It seems that the smartphone costs about $173 to make, according to research firm iSuppli.

The estimations don’t include other costs, such as software development, shipping and distribution, packaging, and miscellaneous accessories that come with each phone, which probably means that Apple spends around $199 to make a 8Gb iPhone, which is then sold with $599 unsubsidized, a three-fold markup. However, iSuppli said that Apple sells the device to carriers for about $499, which means they only charge a $300 markup on their side, with the additional $100 added by the carrier.

The second generation iPhone packs 3G, GPS, better battery life (300 hours for standby, 2G talk at 10 hours, and 3G talk of 5 hours, or  5-6 hours of browsing, 7 hours of video, and 24 hours of audio) and much more. It is also slimmer.