And we thought $99 rumors at Walmart sounded cheap! According to Apple Insider, if you live in Japan and don’t mind signing a 2-year deal with official carrier SoftBank, you can take home an 8GB iPhone 3G for FREE!

No matter the exchange rate, zero is zero, so if you’ve been holding out for an iPhone of your very own, is this finally enough the sway you? And most importantly, what Emoji will you use to express your free iPhone feelings?

(For our non-Japanese readers think AT&T, Rogers, or any other carrier will match this deal any time soon..?

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Live in Japan? Want an iPhone 3G for FREE?

Another round of pre-WWDC mayhem:

First up, Ars Technica reported that AT&T followed the Apple Store’s lead in being sold out of the current generation iPhone (2007) model. Did Apple really underestimate demand so uncharacteristically and dramatically, or are they learning to wean consumers earlier this time? And any wonder the old iPhone’s market share has dropped, given that its been getting harder and harder to buy one over the last few months? Moday should fix that…

Next up, Apple Insider spread the unabashedly crazy-sounding rumor that UK’s O2 might subsidize the iPhone 3G to the extent of making them “free upgrades”. This links into other rumors of an ultra-low (~$200) price point for the iPhone 3G, with O2 willing to eat even that cost in an effort to attract tasty service-consuming users.

Lastly, Engadget works the bugs out of Google Translate enough to let us know that Reuters Italy has said that while co(?)-exclusive iPhone carrier Telcom Italia might not be selling the iPhone 3G early next week, they will most definitely probably be potentially announcing it. Wouldn’t be waiting for someone else to do that first, now would they?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Carrier Update: AT&T Sold Out, O2 Giving Them Out, & Telecom Italia Ready to Shout?