Do you have to pay the tax when ordering in the Apple Online Store?
Yes, I do. The tax I pay will be the same whether I buy it in person at the store nearest to me, or order it online to be shipped to me.
There are one or two states (I know Oregon is one) which have no goods/services tax, so for those few people, they get it pretty cheap. However, the majority of the people in the US have to pay sales tax.
The only way for me to buy a phone at the price listed on the store is to book a plane ticket to Oregon, buy it there, and then bring it back. Not worth the savings.
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So only unlocked GSM iPhones, not CDMA phones... what is going on? Why not CDMA phones? Guess I am STILL waiting...
Matthew
To answer why, you'd have to know more about how CDMA2000 networks work.
The short of it is, SIM cards for CDMA networks are an option of the standard, but not required. And in the US, no carrier actually uses SIMs for provisioning. So what restricts the phone from working on a particular US carrier is actually the carrier's list of allowed phones, not the phone itself.
I've personally gotten a phone added to the Verizon network which wasn't originally on the network, but it required some work on the higher level rep.
I guess the question I'd have to ask, is what are you trying to accomplish, and which network are you trying to add an iPhone 5 to?