Officially Unlocked iPhones on July 11 - They're Coming

[Knolly]

So I was thinking, the whole unable to buy an iPhone without a contract has only been mentioned in reference to AT&T...

So what about other countries.

Most importantly...

There will be officially unlocked iPhones in multiple places. Some of the countries the iPhone will be in require by law that handsets also be available unlocked. This happened briefly in France.

However, the iPhone is coming to Belgium, which specifically forbids any phone locking whatsoever.

So my current strategy is to wait and see what happens. I want a new iPhone, as I don't have a current gen one, but there is no way I'm changing my contract, as the new iPhone plan would require me to pay more than $20 more a month than what I'm paying for the same thing. If for a few hundred extra I can get an unlocked iPhone from Belgium you bet I'll do it, ha.

 

[mtfield]

So I was thinking, the whole unable to buy an iPhone without a contract has only been mentioned in reference to AT&T...

So what about other countries.

Most importantly...

There will be officially unlocked iPhones in multiple places. Some of the countries the iPhone will be in require by law that handsets also be available unlocked. This happened briefly in France.

However, the iPhone is coming to Belgium, which specifically forbids any phone locking whatsoever.

So my current strategy is to wait and see what happens. I want a new iPhone, as I don't have a current gen one, but there is no way I'm changing my contract, as the new iPhone plan would require me to pay more than $20 more a month than what I'm paying for the same thing. If for a few hundred extra I can get an unlocked iPhone from Belgium you bet I'll do it, ha.

You can be assured that any unlocked iphones being sold from belgium are going to go at an extremely high premium that will easily outweigh the extra $20 a month.. good luck man

 

[Knolly]

Meh, so one would assume, as I think the unlocked iPhone in France ended up selling for over $1000 when converted.

But the thing is, you could get the locked iPhone in France for much cheaper. They CANNOT sell a locked iPhone in Belgium, so they have to price it to be competitive.

 

[Van Wildonher]

Yeah it's kinda funny all the money americans made selling the unlocked iPhone will now be spent getting an unlocked iPhone 2.