They will expect you to pay full list price for it if you don’t return it.

See above.

Yes. See above also. The iPhone 4S 16GB, for example is a $649.00 phone retail, from Apple, if you check unlocked and contract free link on Apple’s site. If that’s the one you got from Sprint you paid $199 for it. They’re not going to let you keep a $650 phone for $199 plus the $175 early termination fee. The carriers sell $650 phones for $199 with a 2 year contract because they can count on your monthly service fees for 2 years. That’s how cell phone service kind of works.

What, you thought you could get a free iphone?

Your mistake, why would you think they would leave that big loophole?

You signed a contract as part of the transaction and the particularss are spelled out specifically in detail in writing. I suggest you read through it now if you failed to do so before signing it.

If the major carriers did not subsidize the phones, certainly not nearly as many people could afford smartphones of any type and especially the iPhone.

Several years ago I read an interesting article in Consumer Reports which brought up a very interesting aspect to this.

Your monthly rate for your phone/data plan has about 6–9 dollars per month built in to cover the cost of the phone over the two year span of the contract.

However, after the two years are up and the phone is essentially paid for, if you don’t upgrade to another phone and another contract (but just go month to month,) they’re not going to reduce your monthly amount due by that same $6–9.

If you don’t upgrade to another newer phone after 2 years, that amt. is basically paying for someone elses phone or basically ending up in the company’s pockets.

Interesting, huh?

But most people do in fact upgrade and get a newer phone because we are conditioned to think we need the latest and greatest. And there is absolutely no reward for doing the opposite. And in fact one is penalized by this carefully calculated system if one resists the urge to follow the other sheeple.

But there is no free lunch and no free iPhone (or one at rock bottom pricing) merely by canceling. One way or another you will pay either by being charged full price of $600 plus or being expected to return it in undamaged condition.

They will then turn around and knock $25–50 bucks off and sell it as a refurb. They aren’t fools :)

What does your contract say?