Get an iPhone 3G for free — in Japan

Is Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank making way for a new version of the iPhone, or are sales just sluggish? Who can say, but from Friday through the end of May, you can sign up for an 8GB iPhone 3G in Japan for a grand total of zero.

AppleInsider and CrunchGear report that starting Friday, SoftBank's new "iPhone for Everybody" campaign (translated page is here) will offer the 8GB iPhone for free, so long as you sign up for a new two-year contract. The promotion apparently runs through May 31.

Meanwhile, SoftBank will sell the 16GB iPhone for a steeply discounted price—just 11,520 yen (about US$119), and you can even pay for the handset in monthly installments, which come out to less than $5 a month during the two-year service agreement.

SoftBank subscribers will still have to pay monthly voice and data charges, of course, although as AppleInsider notes, the carrier is chopping its standard data plan (about US$62 a month) by more than 25 percent.

Here in the U.S., of course, the iPhone 3G is still $199 for the 8GB and $299 for the 16GB model—although if you're a Reward Zone member at Best Buy, you can snap up an 8GB iPhone 3G for $99 (through February 28 only).

So, what's the deal? Hard to say; as CrunchGear points out, Apple has yet to release iPhone sales figures for Japan, while Ars Technica speculates that SoftBank might be struggling to fulfill its promised sales goals for Apple given the worldwide economic crisis.

For its part, AppleInsider thinks the promotion could simply be a way for SoftBank to clear out its inventory in advance of a new iPhone, which may well arrive this summer. That said, AT&T has yet to offer any promotional deals, which suggests that it isn't having any trouble moving its iPhone stock.

In any case, if you've been pining for a new iPhone and you happen to live in Japan, looks like Friday is your lucky day.

Related:
SoftBank now giving away iPhones in Japan [AppleInsider]