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German iPhones Unlocked by iTunes
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That's right.
But it applies to all other phones as well. I can get a N95 for 499 Eur. unlocked w/o contract, half the price of the Apple one. Sure, that does not have to coolness of an iPhone, but it does have HSDPA, GPS and a better camera. Nokia has to pay r&d as well.
It has been usual to pay a premium for choosing a mac over something else, but in this case its a lot.
Christian
I agree. I wonder as Apple grows in market share if they will eventually feel backlash from they way the appear to be milking customers. Fanboys will put up with a lot, but the general public won't.
The law is far from perfect, so it might be.
999 is a LOT of money
I think for that price I'd rather get one on a provider and get the bonus of free call time etc. and have it (hopefully) sim free at the end of 18 months.
I presume that is the reaction that apple intended?
unlocked german iPhone is about £700 pounds.. that's almost double so I don't see what's the point in your message.
If this is true, there's a pretty simple solution: go offline before a sync.
But anyway I don't think they can do this. Are you guys really suggesting that if a German businessman takes his unlocked phone to, like, London or San Francisco (where no unlocked phones are sold), Apple is going to disable the phone just because he syncs it in his hotel room while using a British or American sim card?
I don't know German law, but I think they would get their asses sued off in Germany if they pulled **** like that. If the phone's being sold as 'unlocked', it had better work that way.
Living in China
Living in China, I'm interested about the negotiations between China Mobile and Apple. Here, cell service is totally a la carte, so I don't see how they're going to sell this phone in any exclusive kind of way.
Here, you buy a phone (I have a tiny LG), then you go buy a cell number, and when you need to recharge it, you buy cards with a code on it. Totally anonymous; all done with cash...just the way I like it.
Funny, as an American, I had to move to China to experience what freedom in cell service can be like, but that's the way it goes.
With people here accustomed to this sort of way of doing business, I am just curious about how the iPhone's going to fit into the mix. Seems to me if locked with some stupid contract it's not going to sell well, and a price point of more than $2000 (999 euro + 399 euro), it's definitely not going to sell well either.
Living in China, I'm interested about the negotiations between China Mobile and Apple. Here, cell service is totally a la carte, so I don't see how they're going to sell this phone in any exclusive kind of way.
Here, you buy a phone (I have a tiny LG), then you go buy a cell number, and when you need to recharge it, you buy cards with a code on it. Totally anonymous; all done with cash...just the way I like it.
Funny, as an American, I had to move to China to experience what freedom in cell service can be like, but that's the way it goes.
With people here accustomed to this sort of way of doing business, I am just curious about how the iPhone's going to fit into the mix. Seems to me if locked with some stupid contract it's not going to sell well, and a price point of more than $2000 (999 euro + 399 euro), it's definitely not going to sell well either.
If you have bought one of these unlocked iPhones and have problem activating,
here is some info:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5950897
here is some info:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5950897
It's not high. What would you pay for an iPhone with a contract? About $1,800 I think. Work it out $60 per month for 24 months. Either you pay $1250 up front of $1,800 on installments over two years.
What Apple is trying to do here is teach people that phones are not free. You pay for them with grossly inflated monthly airtime charges that actually payoff the load on the phone. Yes the phone has only $250 worth the parts inside. But you have to also pay for the factory that assembles the parts, transportationa and the retail store that sells t. And what about all those engineers at Apple, they don't work cheap and there are many of them
Hacking your phone should send you to jail!
You have to remember that when you unlock your phone, Apple is losing out on money that could of been spent on R&D.... or Yachts and Jets. AT&T is amazing when it comes to consumer rights, just think, they thought about us long enough to even consider an exclusive contract featuring the blazing speed of EDGE. I think Apple should take everyone of those iPhone hackers and unlockers in the states to court, and then do the same to those who have "Hackintoshes"
I love kool-aid.
You have to remember that when you unlock your phone, Apple is losing out on money that could of been spent on R&D.... or Yachts and Jets. AT&T is amazing when it comes to consumer rights, just think, they thought about us long enough to even consider an exclusive contract featuring the blazing speed of EDGE. I think Apple should take everyone of those iPhone hackers and unlockers in the states to court, and then do the same to those who have "Hackintoshes"
I love kool-aid.
Probably illigal as the iPhone in Europe may not have the same FCC certification as the US one. It is possibly ok but I would not bet on it.
A couple of things...
First, the original poster was wrong. 1398 euro = $2077 today. $2077 - $250 = $1820 (not $1250). Just about the $1800 you quoted. So, Apple and T-Mobile just want the same money they'd get off you with the long contract b.s.
Second, you're contradicting yourself. So what you're saying is that the phone is $250 of parts and $1800 of assembly and transportation? Or is it $250 of parts and $1800 of service time? I think in reality, for Apple it's about $300 of labor/parts and $99 of profit...they typically aim for profit margins of 20-30% on their products, after all. Then, there's the $1400 of service time, which they decided to split somehow with AT&T / T-Mobile / etc.
So, they're roughly just charging you for the whole contract anyway. Say what you want, but I think it's a big f--- you to people who want a little freedom. After all, they already taught us phones weren't free when they charged us $399 for it.
Radio is controlled in many countries if not all of them. I know little to nothing about New Zealand, but in the US an unauthorized device can put you in a heap of problems.
Example ... You need a license for operating a ham radio.
As I stated before, the 999 is around the price of the phone (locked) + the amount that Apple would receive over a 2 year contract. Yes sounds horrible, but that was what they wanted to make (999 EU) locked or unlocked. It is a matter of making it over 2 years or now.I am convinced that Apple would prefer to avoid selling an unlocked one as that creates problems in other countries where the unlock is not mandatory and as such they need to add more controls and more controls means more complexity which equals more ways for people to break in.
german iphone injunction
It would be really stupid to pay the $600 premium right now. The injunction won by vodafone against t-mobile-only-iphones also means that t-mobile has to unlock every iphone sold after Nov 19 if the customers wants it. For free, even those which sold for Euro 399. Get your iphone in Germany as long as it lasts.
It would be really stupid to pay the $600 premium right now. The injunction won by vodafone against t-mobile-only-iphones also means that t-mobile has to unlock every iphone sold after Nov 19 if the customers wants it. For free, even those which sold for Euro 399. Get your iphone in Germany as long as it lasts.
Because most phones are heavily subsidised on contracts (free phone + £35 a month) - the full price of the handset without a contract (no-subsidising) is often £3-400.
The iphone is sold without a contract (therefore it's unsubsidised) - totally unlike any other phone in the UK, therefore it is unsubsidised - so locked to contract or unlocked £269 should be it's max price, and on a contract it should be cheaper or free like all other phones here are.
If Apple (or rather the mobile networks) sold the iphone like all other mobiles are - subsidised low price on a contract or £3-400 unlocked without contract people would not complain - it fits the sales model we all know, and is frankly what I expected - perhaps even subsidised it would have been say £100-£150 as it's supposed to be revolutionary.
For some reason Apple have tried to implement a new sales style that shows the phone to be unsubsidised - proved a you do not have to return the phone if you do not sign up to an O2 (or whichever) contract - yet are not prepared to behave like all other handset providers/networks and allow the phone to be used freely.
It would be really stupid to pay the $600 premium right now. The injunction won by vodafone against t-mobile-only-iphones also means that t-mobile has to unlock every iphone sold after Nov 19 if the customers wants it. For free, even those which sold for Euro 399. Get your iphone in Germany as long as it lasts.
Well, they have to unlock the phone, but I don't think that means they have to let you out of the contract you signed up for you when you bought it. You'll wind up paying more for the contract than the extra 600 to just get it unlocked without a contract.
No. The total cost of the unlocked phone is 999, not 399 + 999. That works out to $1,481 US. That's less than the total they'd get out of you with the contract, but they presumably figure that people will not actually buy it if they price it any higher
ooo thats good news hopefully hackers will be able to figure out a way for us O2 and AT&T haters
The German lawsuit is based on a claim that there's a German law which allegedly requires that for every (cell phone+service contract) bundle, there must be an option to decouple the bundle and choose to purchase the hardware and the service contract from different companies.
If that is true, then IMHO it stands to reason that if you purchase the €999 iPhone, there will be no contract, and thus no need for an early termination buy-out.
Oops, I just re-read what you wrote, and now I don't think you were actually saying what I thought you were as I was writing this...
I dont understand how you are "paying the 600 euro premium" over the two year life of the contract, since you have to pay for cell service anyways, whether its locked or unlocked.For example: I pay 399 for my iphone, now I pay 65 a month for service w/ ATT. I pat 999 for my iphone, now I pay 65 month with T mobile.
It works out to 25 euros a month (for two years equals 600 euros). So unless your preferred carrier is 25 euros a month cheaper, you arent paying a premium in the plan.
I think unless you get a lower carrier rate for using your own phone, or a higher carrier rate for a subsidized phone, I dont think the math some of the people here are using works out. Correct me if I am wrong, please.
It works out to 25 euros a month (for two years equals 600 euros). So unless your preferred carrier is 25 euros a month cheaper, you arent paying a premium in the plan.
I think unless you get a lower carrier rate for using your own phone, or a higher carrier rate for a subsidized phone, I dont think the math some of the people here are using works out. Correct me if I am wrong, please.
I don't want to get back into last week debate, but don't you think they (Apple and they carriers) should have give it a though before investing in their network to make it iPhone-ready and then trying to recovered the cost? I mean, they probably would have done it anyway but how can you miss such a inevitable issue?