Unlocked iPhone 4?

[Rico]

Well, it seems that Apple might start selling unlocked iPhones in the US.  This is just a rumor - for now.  But it seems plausible to me.

Rumor has it Apple will start selling unlocked iPhone 4s in the U.S. starting Wednesday. It's unknown how much the alleged unlocked iPhones would cost, or what networks would run on. For those unfamiliar, selling unlocked iPhones is common outside the U.S., so the move would not be unprecedented.

First off, the rumor: Twitter user Chronic, who according to 9 To 5 Mac is a credible Apple rumors source, tweeted on Sunday "Unlocked iPhones headed to Apple Stores for Wednesday: MC603 (16GB, Black) MC604 (16GB, White) MC605 (32GB, Black) MC606 (32GB, White)". He did not give any further details, but one thing is for sure: U.S. Apple stores have never carried unlocked iPhones before.

So what's the big deal about unlocked iPhones? Take the U.K. for example: Apple is selling online (and in some stores) an unlocked 8GB iPhone 3GS for the equivalent of $695. An unlocked 16GB iPhone 4 will cost you the equivalent of $829 and $995 for the 32GB model, black or white. There's also a two phones per customer limit, probably to deter from grey market aftersales.

An iPhone 4 for $829, you might ask? But it's just $199 with AT&T or Verizon. As it is common practice in the U.S., carriers subsidize the price of a phone, which they hope to recoup from data and call plans via a two-year contract you have to sign. This, according to calculations, is actually costing you more than buying the phone unlocked, with no carrier ties. Case in point, the ownership cost of an iPhone 4 with the minimum plan costs is around $2000. So basically AT&T subsidizes around $600 of the phone's costs and recoups around $1200 on top of that.

Buying an unlocked iPhone and using it with pay-as-you-go (prepaid) carrier plans is a popular practice in Europe, where you can avoid high roaming costs by just inserting a local pre-paid SIM card. Prepaid plans also allow you to ditch any data plans, so you can make calls and text, and use Wi-Fi data instead of 3G. But the practicality of such a solution is not that great in the U.S.

An unlocked iPhone 4 in the U.S. will probably have limited use. An unlocked CDMA iPhone makes little sense, because Verizon does not use SIM cards for easy identity swapping. The AT&T iPhone would also be of use only on AT&T, because the internals of the device don't support T-Mobile's 3G frequencies.

So, in theory, if there will be an unlocked iPhone in the U.S., its main use would be with prepaid services from AT&T. However, AT&T's prepaid plans do not offer much financial advantage over contract plans: It would cost you $60 for unlimited talk and text, and $.01 for each 5KB (yes, kilobytes) of data. On $75 prepaid plans, you get 200MB of data and unlimited calls and texts.

A similar package with AT&T's contracts will run you around $100 per month, which is slightly more than the $75 per month on the prepaid deal. However, you would have to shell out more money upfront to benefit from the savings, which over two years would be in the region of $600 (what a carrier subsidizes the phone for). Of course, we still don't know what pricing structure would be applied for an unlocked iPhone in the U.S.. In addition, unlocked phones become available only a certain period after the launch of a phone, so if the iPhone 5 arrived this fall, don't expect it to be available unlocked from Apple straight away.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/230165/unlocked_iphone_4_coming_this_week_sounds_good_to_me.html

[billybob476]

They've been doing this for awhile in Canada, I'd love it but damned if I'm gonna pay almost a thousand dollars for a cell phone I'll want to replace in two years.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I don't get the point of it really, is there any benefit to having it unlocked if your still restricted to AT&T's network?

King

[billybob476]

I don't get the point of it really, is there any benefit to having it unlocked if your still restricted to AT&T's network?

King

Well you wouldn't be restricted to AT&T, you could get a no-contract plan and jump to other GSM networks if you wanted.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I don't get the point of it really, is there any benefit to having it unlocked if your still restricted to AT&T's network?

King

Well you wouldn't be restricted to AT&T, you could get a no-contract plan and jump to other GSM networks if you wanted.

Except that the article stated that T-Mobile is not supported.  So am I just misreading this article? 

King

[billybob476]

Not sure then aside from travelling, say you wnet to Europe you could drop a local SIM into the phone. In Canada all out major carriers sell the iPhone now (Bell, Telus, Rogers/Fido) so I could see the appeal in that situation.

[Feathers]

I don't get the point of it really, is there any benefit to having it unlocked if your still restricted to AT&T's network?

King

Well you wouldn't be restricted to AT&T, you could get a no-contract plan and jump to other GSM networks if you wanted.

Except that the article stated that T-Mobile is not supported.  So am I just misreading this article? 

King

No, it said T Mobile 3G wasn't supported. If you just wanted to talk and text (and slow data) you'd be fine.

[Rico]

Guess it's official now:

Apple (AAPL) this morning began selling "unlocked" models of its iPhone 4 -- for the first time allowing U.S. customers to buy the smartphone without committing to a two-year contract with a wireless carrier.
The unlocked iPhones, though, come at a higher price: $649 for a model with 16 gigabytes of memory and $749 for 32GB. By contrast, the equivalent iPhone 4 models sold with Verizon Wireless or AT&T contracts cost $199 and $299. Carriers typically subsidize the phones, then make the money back as subscribers pay monthly service fees.
On its website, Apple says the unlocked phones can be used "on the supported GSM cellular network of your choice," including AT&T. Buyers must supply their own micro-SIM card, which is available from wireless carriers.
In the U.S., T-Mobile is the only other carrier with a GSM network. However, Apple notes on its website, owners of an unlocked iPhone 4 can use "multiple carriers," which can be useful for customers who travel overseas.
Verizon uses the competing CDMA wireless standard.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18270011?nclick_check=1

[Feathers]

Coould you only buy them on contract up until now? (Our networks sell either subsidised on contract or full price on Pay As You Go.)

I didn't realise that the US was quite as limited (in terms of networks) as it appears to be. I guess you guys are spread out over much more geography than we are making any sort of decent coverage percentage really difficult to achieve.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Coould you only buy them on contract up until now? (Our networks sell either subsidised on contract or full price on Pay As You Go.)

I didn't realise that the US was quite as limited (in terms of networks) as it appears to be. I guess you guys are spread out over much more geography than we are making any sort of decent coverage percentage really difficult to achieve.

You wouldn't believe how limited our networks are compared to the EU...been talking with a Swedish friend of mine and he's appalled by our service (or lack of).  We have to pay up for even the most ridiculous things like bluetooth/local wifi tethering.

King

[Feathers]

I'd forgotten that I've had some of the information on this before - I had a discussion with Rick a while back regarding the need to pay to receive calls or text messages.

Try that over here and there would be rioting in the streets. There must be some cheaper bits somewhere though?

If I want a new phone, I've got 5 different networks to choose from, all of them GSM. On top of that are a good three or four other networks that piggy back on these networks but sell under their own brand name at their own rates. If I wnat to eep my phone I can take it to any of these people.

At last, we're in front on something...

[KingIsaacLinksr]

We have two GSM and two CDMA companies and all of them have exclusivity deals and only work in certain areas and yeah...its a mess.

(That is not including the cheap-phone market I might add)

King

[Feathers]

We have two GSM and two CDMA companies and all of them have exclusivity deals and only work in certain areas and yeah...its a mess.

(That is not including the cheap-phone market I might add)

You had a few more and they merged didn't they?

[KingIsaacLinksr]

We have two GSM and two CDMA companies and all of them have exclusivity deals and only work in certain areas and yeah...its a mess.

(That is not including the cheap-phone market I might add)

You had a few more and they merged didn't they?

I think some did, and T-Mobile is about to merge with AT&T.  So its only going to get worse from here out.  But I'm hopeful it will get better...some day.

King