Apple to Begin Selling Unlocked iPhone 5 Models in U.S. as Soon as Later Today

SkoshOfSean said:

Trying to figure out if this is a joke.

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Why a joke? I want to buy the iphone 5 factory unlocked in the US to use abroad and Apple didnt say anything about it so far. There is nothing on the apple store so far. What are they waiting for to release the factory unlocked version? Is it their marketing strategy to pass the Christmas sales and not sell the unlock one? Whats going on with these people?

hgrimberg said:

Why a joke? I want to buy the iphone 5 factory unlocked in the US to use abroad and Apple didnt say anything about it so far. There is nothing on the apple store so far. What are they waiting for to release the factory unlocked version? Is it their marketing strategy to pass the Christmas sales and not sell the unlock one? Whats going on with these people?

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You've been able to buy an unlocked iPhone on the online Apple Store for a few days now, thus you wanting to know if Apple was going to sell them unlocked seemed like you were joking.

Wow! You made my day! I was not seeing that at the bottom. I thought they were going to make a big announcement.

Hmmm going to get my folks to pick one of the 32gb models up when they pass through the US heading to NZ. $300 saving on the 32gb model compared to our local rip-off prices.

Somebody knows what is the delivery time for the unlock iphone 5 to be delivered in Miami?

I didn't mean to be insulting with my joke comment. It is just that the whole thread was about the fact that unlocked iPhones 5 are now available from Apple.

Why is mine showing up as 699? instead of the 649?

Nvm I was on the canada website for some reason.

BiggAW said:

After iOS 5 and ICS, the playing field is highly competitive, and it pisses me off equally when people make arrogant and uneducated statements that either the iPhone or Android is so far superior to the other, or that one of the other is junk because in reality, all those statements are patently false.

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Considering this is more a matter of personal opinion than a statement of fact, your anger is definitely misplaced.

I personally find ICS to be buggy, clumsy and I'll conceived. As a developer with experience on every mobile platform since the first Palm and Newton devices, my opinion is certainly not naive or uneducated.

It is however my opinion, and while you are entitled to yours as well, that does not make it any more valid than mine or anyone else's.

I just bought the iphone 5. I am concerned about the delivery time. Apple says it will deliver on december 17 at midday and my friend that will bring it to my country will be in the US just on that day until 4 pm.
When the apple store says it will be delivered on a specific date, does it in fact happen or can they be delayed or maybe it will arrive sooner? Whats your experience?

There is no guarantee, but given that shipping times are down to 2-4 business days, I would think there is a very good chance that you will get it before then.
Once it leaves China it probably won't be more than a week for delivery.

hgrimberg said:

I just bought the iphone 5. I am concerned about the delivery time. Apple says it will deliver on december 17 at midday and my friend that will bring it to my country will be in the US just on that day until 4 pm.
When the apple store says it will be delivered on a specific date, does it in fact happen or can they be delayed or maybe it will arrive sooner? Whats your experience?

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hgrimberg said:

I just bought the iphone 5. I am concerned about the delivery time. Apple says it will deliver on december 17 at midday and my friend that will bring it to my country will be in the US just on that day until 4 pm.
When the apple store says it will be delivered on a specific date, does it in fact happen or can they be delayed or maybe it will arrive sooner? Whats your experience?

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As a follow up, my sister ordered an unlocked phone on Friday. It originally said delivery would be somewhere around the 17th. Now it has shipped and she checked the tracking and it said delivery should be Wednesday!

thewitt said:

Considering this is more a matter of personal opinion than a statement of fact, your anger is definitely misplaced.

I personally find ICS to be buggy, clumsy and I'll conceived. As a developer with experience on every mobile platform since the first Palm and Newton devices, my opinion is certainly not naive or uneducated.

It is however my opinion, and while you are entitled to yours as well, that does not make it any more valid than mine or anyone else's.

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You can certainly argue positives about one or the other, and saying that the software that has been developed for iOS is slicker and smoother than that which has been developed for Android is, in general, a valid point. However, that can easily be countered with a myriad of other points, like free apps, native Google integration, the way it handes the user's Google Account, etc, etc.

But, at the end of the day, at this point in the game, and given the data about the popularity of both, as well as expert reviews of both platforms, it is arrogant, uneducated, and patently false to claim that one is vastly superior to the other as a whole, unless you are only looking at one very specific feature or functionality, i.e. Google Maps or iTunes. Those types of integration can be selling points for individuals, but overall, both are extremely competitive platforms, and any buyer who doesn't acknowledge that when buying a smartphone is an uneducated sheep (and there are the anti-Apple Android sheep just like there are iSheep). If one were so vastly superior, there wouldn't be a fiercely competitive race between the iPhone 5 and devices like the Galaxy S III or the DROID RAZR series.

This comes from someone who owned an SGS I (AT&T, so no DROIDs unfortunately) and now an iPhone 4S, and has seen the ups and downs of both platforms. If you look at my gear, I have an Apple bias, but I am currently planning on acquiring an Android tablet, two Windows PCs and possibly an Android smartphone to run alongside a multitude of Apple and non-Apple devices. I used Windows all my life, and now I use mostly Mac at home, and Windows at work (no choice there, but the only things I don't like about it are because of the locked-down corporate IT).

SkoshOfSean said:

There is no guarantee, but given that shipping times are down to 2-4 business days, I would think there is a very good chance that you will get it before then.
Once it leaves China it probably won't be more than a week for delivery.



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As a follow up, my sister ordered an unlocked phone on Friday. It originally said delivery would be somewhere around the 17th. Now it has shipped and she checked the tracking and it said delivery should be Wednesday!

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You are right. They told me it left China already.
Do you know what happens if I am not present at the delivery time in the address I gave them? I mean, if there is somebody else receiving the phone without any letter from me saying he can accept it and sign the reception, will the phone be delivered anyway?

hgrimberg said:

You are right. They told me it left China already.
Do you know what happens if I am not present at the delivery time in the address I gave them? I mean, if there is somebody else receiving the phone without any letter from me saying he can accept it and sign the reception, will the phone be delivered anyway?

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Most delivery people will let anyone sign who happens to be at the right address.

Thank you

viewfly said:

I don't think you get access to AT&T roaming partners, so the coverage footprint is smaller than all AT&T contract. Same with AT&T prepay GoPhone: it's a smaller footprint than post pay.

So be alert that the coverage can be less for you on StraightTalk. AT&T is not foolish.

From GoPhone WiKi:

'Network coverage is less compared to AT&T postpaid plans.'

Plus you can see that by comparing maps.

AT&T's extensive network is made by roaming partners, and not native coverage.

Compare GoPhone vs 'Voice' coverage here. I bet GoPhone = StraightTalk.

And that may be fine for you. Minus LTE too.
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/#?type=gophone&opt=payg

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I doubt it. The technical complexity to do what you suggest isn't worth it, especially for Gophone which is AT&Ts post paid service

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petrucci666 said:

Yes I do realize that, I did my research before going through all of it.

Had ATT first, then switched to Straight Talk. Straight Talk often had severe problems with their data connection making it unusable. I was essentially paying $45 for something that didn't work half the time and when it did, it would work slowly. Also, no LTE, no visual voicemail.

I rather pay $65 and have it work all the time, have LTE and visual voicemail.

Question for you - you do realize ATT cripples Straight Talk and doesn't offer their best to Straight Talk customers?

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Please cite evidence? I know many people who switched and found no difference at all in coverage quality. Reviews back this up as well. I think you've got a Hawthorne effect in play with your own experience. As for LTE, that's something different and not part of the discussion as there are no post paid LTE providers yet anyway.

Here are several reviews citing that AT&T and Straight Talk coverage is the same:

http://gigaom.com/mobile/straight-talk-it-could-let-you-dump-att-or-t-mobile/
"How’s the coverage? Since Straight Talk is paying AT&T and T-Mobile for their networks, the coverage is the same as if you were paying those operators directly. I haven’t seen any coverage differences at all. If you get good coverage now from one of the two carriers, you should get the same with a Straight Talk SIM."

http://www.cultofmac.com/186843/why...e-best-carrier-for-your-iphone-period-review/
" Once everything is up and running, Straight Talk just screams, though. In our experience, the voice quality, 3G speeds and network coverage were just as good as AT&T’s: we were even able to extensively use Straight Talk’s network in the middle of nowhere on a weekend camping trip. Everything else works without a hitch, including features like iMessage."