If the phone wasn't tied to a carried and a two year obligation one could  probably , just, swallow the cost of this device. That it's tied to the , in my experience, awful ATT data "it'll take a da(y) ta load"  plans, totally removes it from consideration.   This is one area where two year contracts are going to make bleeding edge very much like a  congealing corpse come the next  two generations of the phone   likely to roll out prior to the contracts expiration and just about the time the battery wants to die. 

On the bright side they have woken up a rather boring industry in the USA  with the idea that  if you buy a smartphone  then , how's this  for novelty, you can actually use it without having to  gauge in advance how much of each service you may need.

iPhone Costs Apple $220 To Manufacture