Apple Now Selling Unlocked iPhone 4 in U.S.

[Rajani Isa]

Yep it will be available unlocked. I just hope it will be a world phone and unlocked so I can use it on Verizon in the US and GSM carriers when I'm outside of the US.

Actually its cheap. You'll pay more for the subsidized phone in the end. It has been that way since subsidiaries have been established...

Not in the US - at least, not if you're using AT&T :/

And we can upgrade to a newer iPhone whenever we please, instead of having to wait for our contract to expire -_-

Nothing but money prevents one from upgrading here, either. You just are not offered a contract-backed subsidy on the phone.

I'm going to call Apple about this; I bought an iPhone off-contract a few weeks ago and I feel I should be able to pay the $50 or so difference and have my phone unlocked as well. Currently I'm working abroad and I've had to purchase another unlocked device as my iPhone is neither unlockable via firmware nor unlocked via turbo SIM (the latter isn't working for me for whatever reason). Hopefully Apple will be reasonable about this and not tell me to contact AT&T (as I did purchase this direct at an Apple Store).

If it was a few weeks ago and you got all the stuff still, looks like you may be good (even if missing a few things, you should be good especially if you can get to an Apple Store)

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/salespolicies.html#topic-21

 

[wrightio]

I was going to mark a post along the same lines: Nice to see the US catch up to us in Australia, but you beat me to it.

The main reason what we in Australia have had unlocked phones from the start if the tougher consumer protection laws here in Australia.

Yeah, but the Apple store here in OZ wants $999 dollars for the convenience of a 32Gb. Roughly $1010 US.. think i might wait until the next model. It was worth it for the new Imac.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

Actually its cheap. You'll pay more for the subsidized phone in the end. It has been that way since subsidiaries have been established...

In Europe its store price is the same numbers with an € at the end... at the moment real exchange course is 1,4458US$ : 1€... so from my point of view it is cheap... this will sweeten every europeans trip to the US

Maybe in Europe but not America. In America you get a subsidized price for two years of loyalty. For someone who plans to stay on the same carrier (the majority of the population) the subsidized price becomes a straight up discount.

 

[zephonic]

I wonder when (if) AT&T will offer to unlock iPhones of customers who have fulfilled their 2-year contract.

This!

Our contract ends in September. If they unlock the old but trusty 3GS they'll keep me as a customer.

 

[gngan]

It's great news for Americans. I guess HK is pretty cheap then.

16GB ($4988HKD) = $640USD
32GB ($5888HKD) = $755USD

 

[rdlink]

Who cares, if it won't work on TMO's US network at 3G? If justice prevails, and the AT&T merger with TMO doesn't go through I still have a phone that will never work on the only decent GSM carrier in the US.

I was hoping this would be an internally different model, and be compatible with TMO's 3G US network. I would have jumped ship on VZ in a second. Pipe dreams, I suppose. Oh well. Yawn for me.

 

[igazza]

expensive when you compare it to the ipod touch.

 

[Oz.]

Great news!


eBay iphone sellers going crazy right now

 

[MacMan67]

Apple makes deals with carriers, so carriers sell it for much lower, and ultimately that's how they lure you into contract subsidized phones.[/QUOTE]

In the US and Canada, its not uncommon to sell phones with a huge subsidy attached, the new carriers in Canada actually use a Tab system where your subsidy amount shows up on your bill when you get the phone, then a percentage of your monthly bill is used to pay it off. While not perfect, the penalty for leaving is just the amount owed on the phone, no contract penalty etc.

if you look at Wind Mobile in Canada , they are selling the phones pretty much at their cost which gives you a good benchmark for the real cost of phones. I would guess that the "deal" Apple has with carriers is the same "deal" that all the manufacturers use, with the exception that Apple dictates what the sale price must be and thus the subsidy amount.

Or rather, contract iPhones are a bargain... these are iPhone's real prices

Agreed. When you consider and iPad retails for 499.00 without subsidy, it makes sense, however, I would probably think that ATT has a margin build in to the price without a contract to make some money on the hardware.

 

[MacMan67]

Who cares, if it won't work on TMO's US network at 3G? If justice prevails, and the AT&T merger with TMO doesn't go through I still have a phone that will never work on the only decent GSM carrier in the US.

I was hoping this would be an internally different model, and be compatible with TMO's 3G US network. I would have jumped ship on VZ in a second. Pipe dreams, I suppose. Oh well. Yawn for me.

Careful what you wish for, ATT already said it was going to migrate TMO customers to their network and use the AWS spectrum of TMO's for LTE. The actual word was that if the merger goes through, existing T-Mobile customers would have access to the iPhone that ATT currently has.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Maybe in Europe but not America. In America you get a subsidized price for two years of loyalty. For someone who plans to stay on the same carrier (the majority of the population) the subsidized price becomes a straight up discount.

Guess who is ultimately subsidizing that price? You are! The carriers pay Apple the $ per month that you didn't pay up front for the phone. Either way, you're paying the same amount for the phone in the end. ...& usually more if you break contract early.

 

[MacMan67]

Maybe in Europe but not America. In America you get a subsidized price for two years of loyalty. For someone who plans to stay on the same carrier (the majority of the population) the subsidized price becomes a straight up discount.

Actually in America (and Canada), the cost of the subsidy of the phone is recouped over the length of the contract (and actually built into the pricing model). The interesting part is that whether you sign a contact or not, you still pay the same price for your package, so in fact, the user who buy's their own phone unsubsidized is getting ripped off because the carrier actually makes more money off them over the same 2 year period. Carriers would love to get rid of subsidies, but the high cost of the phones is a barrier for most. Those laws are changing in Canada to force the carrier to only charge the penalty for the real remaining cost of the subsidy.

 

[MacMan67]

Guess who is ultimately subsidizing that price? You are! The carriers pay Apple the $ per month that you didn't pay up front for the phone. Either way, you're paying the same amount for the phone in the end. ...& usually more if you break contract early.

Kinda, the cost on those to the carrier is probably 600 bucks or so. The carrier eats the subsidy and takes all the risk, Apple gets their money up front when the carriers buy them to sell in their stores.

 

[FatMax]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; nb-no) AppleWebKit/534.32 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Smart move. Now they can sell even more iPhones even though its almost over a year old!

 

[flowsy]

Yay! Welcome US of A in the World of unlocked iPhones. I paid € 649,- ($ 938) here in Germany.

Is this price ($649,-) without taxes?

 

[FatMax]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; nb-no) AppleWebKit/534.32 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Maybe in Europe but not America. In America you get a subsidized price for two years of loyalty. For someone who plans to stay on the same carrier (the majority of the population) the subsidized price becomes a straight up discount.

Guess who is ultimately subsidizing that price? You are! The carriers pay Apple the $ per month that you didn't pay up front for the phone. Either way, you're paying the same amount for the phone in the end. ...& usually more if you break contract early.

Not true here in Norway. I save roughly $200 on the phone by buying through the carrier..

 

[Jeaz]

Yikes, it's almost $350 cheaper to buy the unlocked iPhone 4 32GB from Apple in the US than it is where I live. They sure suck us non-US customers dry.

 

[odedia]

Geez, do unlocked phones usually cost this much?

Unlocked iPhone are CHEAP. Please calculate your Total Cost of Ownership over two years.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

Kinda, the cost on those to the carrier is probably 600 bucks or so. The carrier eats the subsidy and takes all the risk, Apple gets their money up front when the carriers buy them to sell in their stores.

Not necessarily. You don't actually know the price AT&T pays for the iPhone to Apple.

 

[booksacool1]

Just to expand on how much extra Australians are charged for unlocked iPhone 4's compared to the U.S
Unlocked iPhone 4 16GB - AU$859 (US$916) compared to US$649.
Unlocked iPhone 4 32GB - AU$999 (US$1065.39) compared to $749.

Yeah we are paying over an extra $300 for the 32GB , which is a bit rude.
Sure there's 10% GST, but thats pretty much it.

Ah well, i'm hoping the next iphone normalises the pricing.

 

[Shivetya]

Unlocked iPhone are CHEAP. Please calculate your Total Cost of Ownership over two years.

Well that assumes you can get service for less by having an unlocked phone. I can't seem to find a carrier who offers enough of a discount to matter.

 

[MacMan67]

Not necessarily. You don't actually know the price AT&T pays for the iPhone to Apple.

Lets just say it is a very well informed approximation. I may not know the actual cost , but I am very familiar to the subsidization model in the North American market.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

Lets just say it is a very well informed approximation. I may not know the actual cost , but I am very familiar to the subsidization model in the North American market.

Every single business I have seen has wholesale pricing. The retail prices apple offers and unsubsidized carrier prices are going to be high on purpose; to make subsidized more appealing.

 

[CBX]

Cheaper, but not a huge amount of difference:

In the UK a 16GB costs £425 ($696.73) vs $649 (£395.98) in the usa.

The above are pre-tax prices.

Yep, its the tax that makes it look worse.

 

[silentnite]

Finally! Apple see's the light at the end of the tunnel. This is great!