I can't speak for other countries but I've had to have my mom's AT&T unlocked iPhone replaced twice now and both times the phone was unlocked instantly.
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I can't speak for other countries but I've had to have my mom's AT&T unlocked iPhone replaced twice now and both times the phone was unlocked instantly.
No, it is exactly the same.
All iPhones ship unactivated. Once you activate the phone, iTunes (or the phone itself, since iOS 5) goes and grabs a list from Apple as to what SIMs the phone should accept. For a factory unlocked phone, that list is short: 'everything'. This is part of activation and never shows any sort of screen ever. (For the record this is my process: I refuse to buy locked phones.)
You get the "congratulations" screen if a full unlock is sent to an already activated phone: iTunes grabs that list and applies it, and recognises the phone was already activated but with non-wildcard lock state.
Closer but I don't think quite there yet. If this were the case then why is the congratulations screen shown every time you restore a carrier unlocked phone? The phone is remembering it was locked and has to check unlock status every time.
Way I understand it anyway.
Are you sure this happens?
If so, then indeed there is some flag somewhere that says the phone was once locked. But on the side of the phone it is still identical. The baseband (which is what verifies this stuff) isn't that sophisticated. The flag probably resides on Apple's servers.
Fairly sure but still waiting for someone with more experience to check in. I think I have seen it mentioned elsewhere on the forms but I only just got my phone unlocked so I don't know for sure.
Of course the hardware is identical - the point is something on the software side is different. The phone presents itself to Apple differently somehow. Maybe the factory unlocked ones are permanently unlocked via NCK, and the carrier unlocked ones are only unlocked by the activation ticket. Whatever the case may be, it seems that the activation isn't transferred properly to the replacement phone in the case of carrier unlocked devices.
I have two 4S'. One carrier unlocked, and one factory unlocked. I get the congrats message every time I activate the carrier unlocked phone. The factory unlocked one displays no such message
Carrier and/or factory unlocked phones are all whitelisted via IMEI number in Apple's unlock server.
AFAIK there is no difference what-so-ever.
AFAIK there is no difference what-so-ever.
There is a difference otherwise the behavior wouldn't be different. I cannot say *what* the difference may be, but there is one
When you swap a phone and get a new IMEI it doesn't work out to be the same. We are speculating that Apple updates the whitelist with your new IMEI but something was clearly broken in that process for the OP here.
I bet there is something being done wrong when the "genius" guys replace the phone, some step that is being missed. Again this is a brand new situation in the US that they are exchanging AT&T phones that have been carrier unlocked, most of the guys in the US haven't seen that before.
The phone doesn't so much "present itself differently", it's just that Apple keeps a list of IMEI numbers and their lock states.
So far as I know they are all sold identically, apart from the serial-number type bits (BT/WIFI MAC, serial no, IMEI, probably a few other things). This makes the most sense, too, because those numbers have to be unique for each iPhone anyway and this can thus be made into a step in the production process (hell-- two of them are laser-engraved into the SIM tray). The linking of an IMEI to a carrier (with or without lock) can then be done at a later time. This allows their inventory to be treated identically for as long as possible, and thus be maximally flexible. They haven't just created a batch of 100 AT&T iPhones, or 100 Vodafone iPhones, or 100 factory-unlocked iPhones. They've just created a batch of iPhones. So if AT&T suddenly needs 150 iPhones but Vodafone only requires 50, they aren't in trouble.
Obviously I don't work for Apple and the only ones who can be sure of this are people who do, but that's what I've gathered off the interwebs.
Now, if a carrier-unlocked iPhone always has iTunes tell you 'yay!' on restore (which btw is new to me), that means that indeed the originally locked state is recorded somewhere. And since iTunes has to get this info from Apple's servers, my money is on it being there.
At least in the US, they're not sold identically. Factory unlocked phones have different SKUs and the box contents are slightly different. AT&T boxed models contain SIMs and no sim ejection tool. Unlocked models come with the SIM tool and no SIM. Similarly, Verizon 4S' and Sprint 4S' also have unique SKUs
When it comes to refurbished phones, the situation is a little different - GSM models are replaced with one specific SKU, CDMA models get another.