[analogika]

...for €999 (incl. 19% sales tax) - that's about US$1500 including tax for those of you suffering from exchange rate absurdity.



(Background: Vodafone Germany requested and got a court order requiring the sale of iPhones independently of communications contracts, since the exclusive-contract binding the iPhone to T-Mobile results in an unfair competitive advantage.)

[frdmfghtr]

Here's an article about the officially unlocked iPhone.

What this shows is that there must be an official, "Apple approved" means of unlocking the iPhone. If there wasn't, T-Mobile couldn't do this.

The question that now comes to mind is this: how many people are going to be contacting AT&T about officially unlocking their iPhones after their initial contract expires? AT&T can't say there's no technical reason preventing unlocking (which I think we already knew).

[Dakarʒ]

You stay classy, Apple. I wonder how much useful information hackers will find the unlocked phone's guts.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

I think apple would rather not sell them in Germany than put unlocked ones out there.

[voodoo]

So it will be available in France and Prussia unlocked? I wonder if Apple will bother with selling exclusive locked phones in the EU from now on... oh yeah.. the UK is still shafted

V

[islandmannpnw]

No such thing. We were just there last night. The staff there stated their new phone called Voyager should be in stores today. It is a look-a-like, but not an iPhone.

[nonhuman]

I think that post deserves an award.

[::maroma::]

I'm confused.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

I think apple would rather not sell them in Germany than put unlocked ones out there.

Did you miss the part about that they're actually being sold?

Also, one thing to keep in mind here is that Apple actually has very little involvement in any of this:

Vodafone went to court against T-Mobile. It's T-Mobile that has the unfair advantage, and I'm sure that whatever profit they've agreed to hand to Apple is per-phone and very very firmly whittled down in the contract between the two.

If T-Mobile is now forced to forgo their own profits because *they* were calculating on doing something illegal, that's not Apple's problem.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Did you miss the part about that they're actually being sold?

Also, one thing to keep in mind here is that Apple actually has very little involvement in any of this:

Vodafone went to court against T-Mobile. It's T-Mobile that has the unfair advantage, and I'm sure that whatever profit they've agreed to hand to Apple is per-phone and very very firmly whittled down in the contract between the two.

If T-Mobile is now forced to forgo their own profits because *they* were calculating on doing something illegal, that's not Apple's problem.

Well it is Apples problem as they have an exclusive contract and they are the ones that need to make sure the phone is unlocked out of the box somehow.

[analogika]

According to what I've read, T-Mobile requests the unlock code using the phone's IMEI, and the phone is then unlocked via iTunes.