Customers in the UK are more than used to stories of rip-off Britain - and few get hit by high prices as regularly as gadget fans.
So it's no surprise that there has been scepticism about the arrival of the iPhone 3G tomorrow. Despite the headline-grabbing price cuts, many customers are concerned that they are actually being fooled into paying more for the new iPhone than they would have done previously.
So, what's the real situation?
Comparing the terms of a standard 8GB iPhone on a deal costing £35 a month (the most popular combination) it seems that customers could actually be in for a better deal.
Largely it's the result of the falling price of the handset itself - which is now £99, or free to higher spenders. It's a dramatic drop from the earlier price of £269, and the contract prices remain steady.
This means that the bill for owning an iPhone 3G comes in at £729 over 18 months. It's still a long way from being insubstantial, but does mean customers will save £170 compared with the £899 they would have spent for a first edition iPhone.
Not only does the reduced price of the phone itself have an impact, but O2's package has actually improved since the UK launch in November last year. Customers pay less overall, and get more for their money: faster download speeds, free access to BT OpenZone Wi-Fi hotspots (as well as those belonging to The Cloud) and an increased allowance of voice minutes and text messages.
So if the total cost of ownership will in fact drop with iPhone 3G, why all the concern?
Well, much of the talk of rising prices has come from America, where things have become more expensive.
Like O2, AT&T - which is the exclusive provider in the US - has subsidised the cost of the iPhone, with an 8GB model now coming in at $199 (£100). But instead of taking a hit to increase sales, AT&T has decided to compensate its shareholders by raising tariffs instead. That means in order to keep the same package of calls, text and data to which they were entitled with iPhone 1.0, American customers must now spend $15 a month more.
This brings the total cost of an equivalent package to $1,975 - spread over the course of a two-year contract, rather than the 18 months of British version. Comparing like for like, that means a UK iPhone costs £939 over two years, while a US model costs £999 ... making this one of the rare occasions where gadget fans in the UK will pay less than those on the other side of the Atlantic.