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Will Apple ever sell officially unlocked iPhone in the US?

P

pika2000

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Original poster
Jun 22, 2007
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The previous argument about Apple not selling unlocked iPhones in the US was due to AT&T exclusivity. Well, that exclusivity is over, yet I don't see any changes. The thing is, the alternate carrier is not another GSM carrier, but Verizon where the iPhone will also be provider locked. Even worse, Apple seems to tighten down their supply to countries where they are selling them unlocked like Singapore, HK, etc, where iPhone 4s that are supposed to be available online are not anymore, and supplies in retail seems to be drying out. Only the 3GS is widely available.

The alternatives are even worse (Android, WP7). The OEMs that make Android and WP7 phones are only making handsets with dual-band 3G for the unlocked markets (eg. Singapore) without US 3G support. This really limits one's option in buying these phones for use in the US. Apple and Nokia are the only companies that have quad-band (penta-band in case of Nokia) 3G support.

Frustrating. :mad:
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I predict not.
 
I think that if the iPhone 5, or whatever the name is, uses a dual CDMA/GSM radio that we will finally see an unlocked option in the US.
 
In Soviet Russia, iPhone unlocks Apple. Yeah, but in all seriousness, no, not until T-Mobile gets the iPhone in the US.

~Peace :cool:
 
I don't think Apple will release an unlocked iPhone in the U.S. any time soon. Besides there's not many options here anyways. AT&T is be the only national GSM carrier an it already sells it. Unless Apple modified it's phone to use the 1700/2100 3G frequencies I don't see the huge need for it.
 
pika2000 said:
Even worse, Apple seems to tighten down their supply to countries where they are selling them unlocked like Singapore, HK, etc, where iPhone 4s that are supposed to be available online are not anymore, and supplies in retail seems to be drying out. Only the 3GS is widely available.
Click to expand...

iPhone 4 is still available unlocked in the Canadian Apple online store... So if they're worried about people buying them unlocked and selling them in the US, they don't seem to be doing much about it.

If I had to guess, I'd say they're more worried about people buying them to resell in China, which I know was happening a lot even here in Canada at launch. Now that iPhone 4 is available legitimately in China, though, I would have expected that resale to slow down...

As to your question, I think Apple will offer an unlocked device in the US. They're in the business of selling hardware, and the more avenues people can buy an iPhone from, the more iPhones Apple will sell. If it's worth their time and effort to make a CDMA version, it's worth their time to sell an unlocked one...

(Although, IIRC AT&T and T-Mobile use slightly different tech, so Apple would need to design a new radio for a universal US iPhone... or something?)
 
Demosthenes X said:
(Although, IIRC AT&T and T-Mobile use slightly different tech, so Apple would need to design a new radio for a universal US iPhone... or something?)
Click to expand...

It's a case of what frequecies the device operates on - the GSM signal used by AT&T is different than T-mobile, but not the edge. So that's why you can get EDGE on the iPhone to work on T-Mobile.
 
You Americans sure get a rum deal. A duopoly of incompatible technologies and carriers, multiple sub-flavours of GSM, no wonder unlocked phones are a no-no.

Imagine a world without CDMA, where you can walk out of an Apple store with a factory unlocked device, then buy a cheap SIM-only voice/data plan from any of four national carriers, all of whom use pure GSM - some even share base stations.

And when the next model comes out, you just eBay your "old" phone and some guy will give you nearly what you paid and ship it to faraway lands.

If that's nirvana, then UK is where it's at.
 
We won't see one until either Apple decides to add support for t-mobile's 3G, or Verizon and ATT are both on LTE and you don't need CDMA or GSM fallback. so it'll probably be a few more years.
 
mrkramer said:
We won't see one until either Apple decides to add support for t-mobile's 3G, or Verizon and ATT are both on LTE and you don't need CDMA or GSM fallback. so it'll probably be a few more years.
Click to expand...

A time where we won't need either a GSM or CDMA fallback? Take me there. I still get EDGE service occasionally. Even worse is the fact I honestly still see GPRS at least once a day!
 
Goldinboy17 said:
A time where we won't need either a GSM or CDMA fallback? Take me there. I still get EDGE service occasionally. Even worse is the fact I honestly still see GPRS at least once a day!
Click to expand...

I didn't say it was going to happen any time soon. It will probably be several years, I think verizon said they were planning to have their network fully upgraded to LTE by 2013. Once that happens Apple could at least get rid of the CDMA antenna and sell one device even if they still need GSM for fallback.
 
Apple... said:
Wirelessly posted
I predict not.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid so too. I mean really, you would think with the AT&T exclusivity ended, there's nothing else preventing Apple selling the iPhone unlocked, but no. So I'm afraid you're probably right.

fertilized-egg said:
Time to take a trip to the friendly neighbors north of the border. In Canada the iPhone unlocks you!
Click to expand...
Actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can only buy unlocked iPhones in Canada online, straight from Apple. Retail versions are provider locked. And no, Apple Canada online store doesn't ship outside Canada (neither do any of the other countries' online store like HK and Singapore, not that it makes any difference right now as the iPhone 4 is listed as not available).

jplusc said:
I think that if the iPhone 5, or whatever the name is, uses a dual CDMA/GSM radio that we will finally see an unlocked option in the US.
Click to expand...
Actually, hybrid CDMA/GSM phones are already available for quite some time, but that doesn't mean they are unlocked. Eg. Verizon world phones like the Droid 2 Global, it's still provider locked. If future iPhones have GSM and CDMA radio in them, I bet it would still be provider locked, respectively to AT&T and Verizon. God forbid US carriers sell an unlocked phone, especially the likes of Verizon.

SDAVE said:
So can you order from the Canadian Apple store and get it shipped to the U.S.?
Click to expand...
Nope. If you could, I would've done it and never posted this. ;)
 
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The telcos own enough Congressmen so that this would never happen. The telcos do not want customers to take their phones to other carriers, and they pay enough money to congress to make sure it doesn't happen. We have the best (?) government money can buy.
 
urbanleopard said:
If that's nirvana, then UK is where it's at.
Click to expand...
Or Singapore, or Hong Kong, etc etc. Ironic isn't it, especially for Apple, which is an American company. I mean really, Apple sell the iPhone unlocked in Canada and Mexico, both countries within the borders of the USA, but not in the US. It's really depressing.
 
Maybe by the time iPhone X launches but I don't expect so in the foreseeable future.
 
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