The iPhone has barely been out for over two months now, but already, a big price cut is coming. Apple will be slashing the price of the 8GB iPhone from it's initial offered price of $599 (USD) to $399 (USD).

Steve Jobs must be quite happy with himself -- initial sales of the fancy-phone were absolutely humongous -- as people across the States lined up outside of stores, waiting for the newest, svelte consumer electronic to become available. And now that Google's rumored ad-paid-for version of the iPhone seems to be approaching readiness, and other similar products are coming to market (such as the open-source OpenMoko), Apple will be able to drop the price to compete with the newcomers.

Apple certainly banked a great deal of profit from those who bought the iPhones as soon as they were available -- and now, they are presumably happy to reduce the retail price of the wunder-phone to something a bit more reasonable, so that everyone else might consider getting one.

September 6th update: Probably due to backlash over the early price-cut, it appears that Mr. Jobs is offering a $100 back to any early iPhone buyers who apply for it.  Link to story.