After AT&T announcement last week about 'no-contract' iPhones, Apple has followed suit and rolled out a similar offer of selling the iPhone 3Gs without a two-year contract for $599 and $699. The announcement implies that the company is endeavoring to shove the current iPhone 3Gs, and make way for the likely launch of a new iPhone, or even an iPhone line, early this summer!

Though Apple is all set to offer its iPhones at the Apple Stores without the earlier two-year contract, what response the move initiates remains to be seen.

In the present economic scenario, mobile shoppers may not exactly lap up the offer, particularly because all iPhone 3Gs sold with 'no-contract' will still be locked to partner AT&T's network.

The moves announced by AT&T and Apple gives a lucid indication that the companies are aiming at clearing their iPhone 3G inventories - quite like what they did earlier too - before the launch of a new iPhone. .

With Apple planning to announce a new iPhone at the Worldwide Developers Conference in early June, the companies are leaving no stone unturned to get rid of the iPhone 3G inventory. Along with the no-contract, supposedly 'free' iPhone offer, AT&T has instructed its store reps to allow an existing AT&T customer to an iPhone even if that customer's present contract is still applicable!