France will now have contract-less iPhones after a furor about the original exclusive tie-up with telco Orange. Unfortunately it comes with a literally hefty price, as the iPhone is now retailing for prices in excess of 800 euros or around $1200 dollars.

As the year winds down to a close, what’s next for the world’s most iconic mobile phone? The iPhone pretty much put the whole ‘I can’t live without my phone’ in a totally new perspective.

Wal-Mart started selling iPhones on Sunday, and shoppers looking for a bargain would be sorely disappointed. The phones are selling for only $2 below the regular list price.

Consumers finally get the choice of a $99 iPhone, but from AT&T, not Wal-Mart. Refurbished units are now available until December 31st for those inclined to get a cheaper iPhone.

The iPhone app iBrevity has received sanction from an unwitting source – the Vatican. The app, created by an enterprising Catholic priest brings a collection of daily prayers to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The Apple iPhone has been a huge success, bringing innovative touchscreen technology to the masses and making Apple lots of money. However, it’s not exactly a cheap option, with the handset itself costing a tidy sum and the monthly contract making owning an iPhone an expensive pastime. Cue the iPhone Nano.

South Korea has finally dropped a rule that prevented foreign phones from being sold in the country. This means the iPhone, BlackBerry and other smartphone models will finally debut in the most wired country in the world.

Yes, Apple’s AppStore is now home to 10,000 applications. However, that single naked statistic does little to flesh out how overwhelmingly successful and transformative the AppStore really is. And, will we soon be seeing $99 iPhones at Wal-Mart?

It seems not a day goes by when one company or another doesn’t release an iPhone app intended to make us part with our cash. Amazon is the latest to take this approach, releasing its iPhone app for free in the hopes that iPhone users everywhere will buy more stuff they don’t need, and can’t afford anyway.

So a few enterprising Linux programmers have figured out how to port Linux to the iPhone. Am I the only one to wonder why?