"Cheap" is never the first word that comes to mind when I think "iPhone" (or "Apple" for that matter... although I find most of their products worth the premium) but apparently I have been thinking about it the wrong way. When I think of shelling out $200 for a cell phone, I chuckle a bit and feel grateful that I'm not a perennial early adopter, who seem to be (with the congenitally rich) about the only people who pay full price for their phones anymore. Since most providers use phones as loss leaders to drive business into their real money-making operation, monthly subscriptions, deals are abundant and a little research can usually get you what you want for under $50.

But as I was reading this CIO Magazine article this morning a quote from Sam Ramdenbourg, director of product planning and strategy for mobile manufacturer Samsung, caught my eye. "The iPhone has created a virtual ceiling at US$199 that's not easy to exceed," Ramdenbourg says. Motorola's director of channel development and customer technology support, Bob Cheslog, seems to agree.

Other phones must at least compare to the iPhone in many ways including memory, capacity and display, and then offer other distinctive capabilities before crossing that $199 threshold, he said.

Could it be that Apple is actually driving down prices for enterprise mobiles by presenting a lower price point and better technology than the market leaders? It started to make sense when I thought about it; businesses have more leverage than an individual when they are doing a deal with a service vendor, but less leeway over the when and the what. Consequently, they pay less than the full price on phones, but considerably more than an individual, with more options, might. After shelling out $300+ for a high-end but mundane Blackberry, a hundred bucks less for a stylish iPhone sounds pretty good.

Now they have pressure from staff to go with iPhones and a certain economic incentive as well. Of course, Apple finds itself unable to reap the full benefits of this pressure once again due to their decision to lock in AT&T as the sole service provider. Businesses already using AT&T face only the usual array of integration difficulties in switching; businesses not using AT&T are unlikely to make the move even at the lower price point (assuming they are happy with their service; in many cases, they are probably happier than they would be with AT&T, given the data network speed issues brought to light recently by the iPhone).

Still, it sounds as though competitors aren't sitting around waiting for the contract to expire and Apple to explode into other vendor deals, but instead are developing their own devices with similarly sexy features and lower prices, which may result in improvements in phone technology for users across the board.