Unsubsidized iPhone 3G Still Locked

[MacRumors]

AT&T confirmed another tidbit that many assumed true, but again it's nice to hear the official word. Despite suggestions that the unsubsidized iPhone 3G ($599, $699) would be "decoupled" from AT&T, a spokesperson has confirmed that the unsubsidized iPhone 3G will still be locked to AT&T.

But both contract and contract-free phones will be "locked" to work only on AT&T's network, and the monthly service plans available will be the same, said AT&T spokesman Michael Coe.

This means U.S. customers who wish to unlock their iPhone 3G will have to wait for a publicly available solution.

As has been stated before, the iPhone 3G will be unable to use T-Mobile's 3G data network, so the only practical reason for unlocking of the iPhone 3G in the U.S. is for international travel.


Article Link

[Zwhaler]

Let's just hope these can be jailbroken. But even if so, it would be much more worth it to use a first gen iPhone on a non-AT&T network.

[Niiro13]

Yay for more official statements.

[MacinJosh]

I wonder if this is the same for UK's and Italy's unsubsidized iPhones.

Joshua.

[yyy]

Can anybody confirm whether it'll be possible for non-American citizens to buy an unlocked iPhone?

[deckwalker]

Why the heck do they insist on locking a phone even if it's unsubsidised? If I pay full price, shouldn't I get to do what I want with the phone?

I travel all the time and carry with me sim cards for four or five countries. I love being able to just drop in a new local sim wherever I arrive. We live in a globalised world - does AT&T not get that, or do they just get it too well and want to make a pile of money off of people who travel.

I hope someone finds an unlock soon. I won't buy the 3G until they do. Until then I'll be very happy with my unlocked 1st gen.

[avigalante]

I wouldn't have expected otherwise.

$599/$699 is MSRP set by Apple for a "non-contract" phone, not an "unlocked" phone.

[Steve Jobs=God]

Originally Posted by MacinJosh

I wonder if this is the same for UK's and Italy's unsubsidized iPhones.

Joshua.

Are the UK going to have unsubsidized iPhones? i've not heard anything about that yet

[tiiim]

Originally Posted by Steve Jobs=God

Are the UK going to have unsubsidized iPhones? i've not heard anything about that yet

o2 in UK will have a pay and go phone with means its not on contract. Exact pricing is still to be confirmed.

[Chupa Chupa]

Originally Posted by yyy

Can anybody confirm whether it'll be possible for non-American citizens to buy an unlocked iPhone?

I don't see why that would be a barrier. I know with the regular ATT GO Phones you just plop down your CC. No questioned asked. I'm guessing they are going to care more about how many a person buys vs who is buying them.

[michaelsviews]

What cracks me up is the pricing , they say it costs like 150 to 175 to build an iPhone 3G but than the price of the phone unsubsidized is out ragios

[MacinJosh]

Originally Posted by deckwalker

Why the heck do they insist on locking a phone even if it's unsubsidised? If I pay full price, shouldn't I get to do what I want with the phone?

Agreed. It's like buying a car but you can only tank it at Shell stations and use Shell oils etc on it.

Joshua.

[brannyxx]

Originally Posted by tiiim

o2 in UK will have a pay and go phone with means its not on contract. Exact pricing is still to be confirmed.

pay and go is fine.... but the million dollar question is whether the Iphones in UK will be non-sim-locked?

[Wild-Bill]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

As has been stated before, the iPhone 3G will be unable to use T-Mobile's 3G data network, so the only practical reason for unlocking of the iPhone 3G in the U.S. is for international travel.

...until someone figures out/jailbreaks it to get it working on T-Mobile. If not, no iPhone for me. I will NOT switch to AT&T and break my T-Mobile contract.

[IronCross]

Originally Posted by Wild-Bill

...until someone figures out/jailbreaks it to get it working on T-Mobile. If not, no iPhone for me. I will NOT switch to AT&T and break my T-Mobile contract.

T-Mobile doesn't have the 3G frequencies that the iPhone supports...

What's the point of unlocking the iPhone 3G if you can't use the most important part of it (the 3G)? You're better off finding a 1st gen unlocked iPhone.

[daneoni]

Originally Posted by brannyxx

pay and go is fine.... but the million dollar question is whether the Iphones in UK will be non-sim-locked?

No they wont. O2 simply developed a PAYG sim card for the phone

[a456]

Originally Posted by michaelsviews

What cracks me up is the pricing , they say it costs like 150 to 175 to build an iPhone 3G but than the price of the phone unsubsidized is out ragios

I don't know about tech retailers, but typically retailers of books take 40%-60% of the cover price from the books they sell. The £175 is a build cost, and both Apple and O2 needs to make additional money to keep their businesses going. Now even if O2 only takes home 20% of the RRP from a £299 phone (£35) and Apple gets the lion's share of £85, there are still all the other costs aside from build costs - e.g. shipping, staffing, advertising, software, etc.

I am sure if you looked at some of the build costs for regular mobiles then Apple would certainly not look greedy, in fact probably the opposite - they run a tight ship.

[Chupa Chupa]

Originally Posted by michaelsviews

What cracks me up is the pricing , they say it costs like 150 to 175 to build an iPhone 3G but than the price of the phone unsubsidized is out ragios

That is Apple's RAW cost to build an iPhone (estimated, I might add). It doesn't include marketing expenses, training expenses, shipping expenses or Apple or ATT's profit margin.

That is why they call the $199/299 prices SUBSIDIZED. ATT is paying Apple's profit in exchange for a customers 2 year commitment, which is where ATT makes its money.

Now if you refuse to commit to a contract ATT cannot guarantee a profit from you, thus they cannot afford subsidize a phone they may or may not get income from. So if you want the phone w/o a contract you have to buy an UNSUBSIDIZED phone, which means YOU have to pay for Apple's profit just like anything else you buy.

This isn't outrageous (note the correct spelling), it's business. Do you expect them to just give product away? Given what other smartphones cost unsub. the iPhone is actually right in line.

[Mackan]

Apple - ... and one product to lock them all.

[Philberttheduck]

Originally Posted by deckwalker

Why the heck do they insist on locking a phone even if it's unsubsidised? If I pay full price, shouldn't I get to do what I want with the phone?

I travel all the time and carry with me sim cards for four or five countries. I love being able to just drop in a new local sim wherever I arrive. We live in a globalised world - does AT&T not get that, or do they just get it too well and want to make a pile of money off of people who travel.

I hope someone finds an unlock soon. I won't buy the 3G until they do. Until then I'll be very happy with my unlocked 1st gen.

Agreed. And didn't Apple essentially renegotiate their contract (revenue sharing no longer with the death star) so that there can be a subsidy? Doesn't that mean they have a different or new contract that was worked out? Which leads me to two things:

One, I just don't understand why Apple needs to continue and be exclusive with AT&T any more. Now, I'm no expert on the details of their contract but what's to say that Apple couldn't have just allowed AT&T to have exclusive rights on original iPhone (EDGE) and just move on the "3G iPhone" with Sprint or Verizon? Hell, their networks are considerably faster both already have technologies for GPS, 3G, Visual Voicemail. I just don't understand why they just didn't make it for them?

And two, probably the more obvious one, why the hell is AT&T making 3 different price points, new/qualifying subscribers, current non-qualifying subscribers, and non-committal? The former two makes sense, but the latter makes absolutely no sense. Does that mean prepaid (makes little sense cuz what's the point of the new iphone without 3g)? It's ridiculous that it's LOCKED for 600 and 700 dollars (who in their right minds consider that worth the money?) This is an Apple product that they should be able to sell ON THEIR OWN without restrictions (no revenue sharing, fine; unlocked is the compromise, at least it should be). Other cell phone companies are already doing this because it makes sense! You know how stupid that AT&T math guys are right now? It'd be cheaper to sign up for one month and cancel (480 vs 599.. that's 120 savings) than buy the no-contract one.

Now, I know that the new iphone uses 3g voice and data, but will this allow current tmobile users (2g/edge or whatever) to even use voice, assuming the community unlocks it?

[m4rc]

Originally Posted by brannyxx

pay and go is fine.... but the million dollar question is whether the Iphones in UK will be non-sim-locked?

I don't see why any country will be selling the iPhone unlocked, it happened in Germany for about a week but then they stopped it. In the UK the iPhone will be locked to O2, regardless of how much you pay, in time there will be a way of unlocking it but the next update will just lock them again.

[efegue]

It's kinda weird for me seeing news like this. Here in Portugal, it's just standard that a phone bought in a operator/network is locked to it. So I don't see nothing wrong with iPhone being locked to the operator/network.

Unlocked phones are always more expensive that the ones bought at the operators, get used to it

btw, my first post at MacRumors although i've been a long time "viewer".
Hi there!

[diamond.g]

Originally Posted by Chupa Chupa

That is Apple's RAW cost to build an iPhone (estimated, I might add). It doesn't include marketing expenses, training expenses, shipping expenses or Apple or ATT's profit margin.

That is why they call the $199/299 prices SUBSIDIZED. ATT is paying Apple's profit in exchange for a customers 2 year commitment, which is where ATT makes its money.

Now if you refuse to commit to a contract ATT cannot guarantee a profit from you, thus they cannot afford subsidize a phone they may or may not get income from. So if you want the phone w/o a contract you have to buy an UNSUBSIDIZED phone, which means YOU have to pay for Apple's profit just like anything else you buy.

This isn't outrageous (note the correct spelling), it's business. Do you expect them to just give product away? Given what other smartphones cost unsub. the iPhone is actually right in line.

So AT&T is paying Apple an extra $400 on top of the subsidized price. That is more than the iPhone 2G. Dang.

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

No surprise but it figures. Nice to finally hear someone say it though.

[Vald]

so, this means i could get an iphone without a contract, just buy an iphone and get out of the store, go home, unpack it from the box, and hopefully jailbrake it when the hackers make a jailbrake program?

a year ago, the original iphone was priced $599, several months later it was priced $399...
could we espect that with this one?