I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but if you want a new BlackBerry Torch 9800 then don’t buy it from AT&T. Why? AT&T is selling it for $199 with contract but Amazon.com sells it for only $100 with contract. At $100, the Torch looks a heck of a lot more attractive doesn’t it?

How is Amazon.com getting away with this? It actually sells many phones below what carriers charge. While Research In Motion (RIM) is rightfully claiming that this isn’t a price cut, the truth is that our carriers are still making a pretty penny off of each phone we buy through them. Don’t even get me started on authorized resellers that seem to quite literally fill malls.

With this option available, are you rethinking your BlackBerry upgrade plans? Suddenly OS 6 just got a lot more accessible. At $100 I am also quite more inclined to recommend the Torch. Sure, its screen is low on resolution and its processor a bit slow compared to the monsters in the iPhone 4, Evo and others but at $100 who cares? It’s a touchscreen BlackBerry with QWERTY and a Webkit browser. I really cannot get my fill of saying $100 here. Hopefully AT&T does the right thing and drops its selling price to match, but we all know AT&T’s reputation. Now if only Google could launch its own national wireless carrier…

All of this does bring up a good point though. Smartphones are still too expensive. What we need to do is just get rid of the feature phones, scrap the dumb phones and move towards everyone using a smartphone. With the magic of economies of scale we really should be seeing decent, free smartphones in the near future. Would you spring for a little bit of an older model if it was free? How about the kids or grandma and grandpa? Would you breathe a little easier handing your son or daughter a smartphone if it was free? After all, you could technically check on whether or not they are hanging out where they say they are. Not to mention the educational advantages that having a smartphone and Wikipedia at their fingertips brings.

Okay, I’ve started to digress here but you get the point. You going to grab your Torch at Amazon.com or sticking with AT&T? The Torch look a lot better now? Let me know.