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You heard it from Jobs himself - Unlocked iPhones

H

Hustle

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 29, 2007
791
104
USA
I emailed Steve Jobs about the iPhones being unlocked. Yes, some of you may now hate me, but here it is.

On Sep 22, 2007, at 6:37 AM, Luke Shepherd wrote:

Dear Apple,

Recently, you announced that the iPhone will be released here in England on November 9th. While i'm happy that the iPhone is coming to the UK, i'm annoyed that nothing has been announced about the unlocking software now available for the iPhone.

I'm a 16 year old college student. I've been waiting for the iPhone to come to the UK since it was released in the USA. I'm going to be purchasing an iPhone when they are released on November 9th, but the fact that many people are buying iPhones and unlocking them is unfair on the people that are spending a huge amount of money on the iPhone and its not so good 02 tariff.

I really think that Apple (Steve Jobs) needs to make an announcement about the unlocked iPhones, and reasure us that we're not being taken for a mug, legitimately going with 02's tariff, when we could get the same tariff with any other carrier for half the price.

Many Thanks

Luke Shepherd

Here is the reply i got

From: sjobs@apple.com
Subject: iPhone UK release Anger

Luke,

Good point - we will say something soon. By the way, you can't get the same tariff for half the price. Check it out - O2 is offering a reasonable deal. Remember, it includes unlimited data.

Best,
Steve
 
You mean Steve Jobs re: unlocked iPhones, right? Not that Jobs is sanctioning unlocked iPhones, right? Because there's nothing in that statement -- written by the undersecretary to the secretary of Steve Jobs, probably -- that supports unlocked iPhones. All "he" said is that Apple will soon make an official position statement about unlocking iPhones. It won't be friendly toward them, trust me.

Really, not that anyone or Apple will agree with me, but probably the best way to handle this, perhaps the way it should have been handled in the first place, if this unlocking business is really more than just a tiny niche problem: Unlock the stupid things. Work with their carrier partners to provide WOW! features only supported by their carrier partners, and make those features so proprietary other carriers can't figure out how to offer them, or if they do they would break some IP laws, so they won't get sued over it. Then only sell the phone with a partner carrier SIM and activation process, and only support them with a valid partner carrier contract. Provide software updates to iTunes and the iPhone that are reckless with phones running on other carriers, so you never know when your iPhone will break if you aren't using a partner carrier.

So, they just cough it up. Use any SIM you please *at your own risk*. Ultimately, the overwhelming number of people spending that much for a phone are going to want full, supported experience. They'll sign with partner carriers. You win by providing the best combination of device and service, not by fighting unlocks which just eat up development time. The biggest place partner carriers stand to lose is in international roaming charges, and most people faced with the possibility of hitching up their iPhone, losing support if Apple can find out, by using it on another carrier abroad, they'll just carry a cheap unlocked phone for local use while out of their home territories, and carry the iPhone for non-phone functions.

The concept that some sort of lock is completely unbreakable is almost weightless. You'll knock them out, they'll get back in. You'll spend all this money breaking unlocks when you could keep your partner carrier users at the same high level putting the effort into features tied to the partner carrier.

Hustle said:
I emailed Steve Jobs about the iPhones being unlocked. Yes, some of you may now hate me, but here it is.

On Sep 22, 2007, at 6:37 AM, Luke Shepherd wrote:

Dear Apple,

Recently, you announced that the iPhone will be released here in England on November 9th. While i'm happy that the iPhone is coming to the UK, i'm annoyed that nothing has been announced about the unlocking software now available for the iPhone.

I'm a 16 year old college student. I've been waiting for the iPhone to come to the UK since it was released in the USA. I'm going to be purchasing an iPhone when they are released on November 9th, but the fact that many people are buying iPhones and unlocking them is unfair on the people that are spending a huge amount of money on the iPhone and its not so good 02 tariff.

I really think that Apple (Steve Jobs) needs to make an announcement about the unlocked iPhones, and reasure us that we're not being taken for a mug, legitimately going with 02's tariff, when we could get the same tariff with any other carrier for half the price.

Many Thanks

Luke Shepherd

Here is the reply i got

From: sjobs@apple.com
Subject: iPhone UK release Anger

Luke,

Good point - we will say something soon. By the way, you can't get the same tariff for half the price. Check it out - O2 is offering a reasonable deal. Remember, it includes unlimited data.

Best,
Steve
Click to expand...
 
Hustle said:
I emailed Steve Jobs about the iPhones being unlocked. Yes, some of you may now hate me, but here it is.

On Sep 22, 2007, at 6:37 AM, Luke Shepherd wrote:

Dear Apple,

Recently, you announced that the iPhone will be released here in England on November 9th. While i'm happy that the iPhone is coming to the UK, i'm annoyed that nothing has been announced about the unlocking software now available for the iPhone.

I'm a 16 year old college student. I've been waiting for the iPhone to come to the UK since it was released in the USA. I'm going to be purchasing an iPhone when they are released on November 9th, but the fact that many people are buying iPhones and unlocking them is unfair on the people that are spending a huge amount of money on the iPhone and its not so good 02 tariff.

I really think that Apple (Steve Jobs) needs to make an announcement about the unlocked iPhones, and reasure us that we're not being taken for a mug, legitimately going with 02's tariff, when we could get the same tariff with any other carrier for half the price.

Many Thanks

Luke Shepherd

Here is the reply i got

From: sjobs@apple.com
Subject: iPhone UK release Anger

Luke,

Good point - we will say something soon. By the way, you can't get the same tariff for half the price. Check it out - O2 is offering a reasonable deal. Remember, it includes unlimited data.

Best,
Steve
Click to expand...

Traitor :rolleyes:
 
sanford said:
You mean Steve Jobs re: unlocked iPhones, right? Not that Jobs is sanctioning unlocked iPhones, right? Because there's nothing in that statement -- written by the undersecretary to the secretary of Steve Jobs, probably -- that supports unlocked iPhones. All "he" said is that Apple will soon make an official position statement about unlocking iPhones. It won't be friendly toward them, trust me.
Click to expand...

hustle was suggesting neither that apple should be friendly towards unlockers nor that the email suggesting that.
 
If you can get the same thing for half the price elsewhere, why wouldn't you consider that a good enough deal for the phone? I'm not sure why you made it your business what other people do with their phones. Apple knows full well what people are doing. Besides, Apple obviously wants people on their iPhone carriers as they get a cut of the tariffs as well.
 
gkarris said:
Yea. If Steve gets "nasty" I'll send him a pic of my Dell computer running the Apple II system.... :p
Click to expand...

That would be hilarious. Really, in the long run, I think Apple and their partners have to find some value-added solution to the issue, if it's more than a niche problem. (Hard to tell as these forums are very definitely niche.) Otherwise it's lots of expensive tail-chasing that puts people off their iPhones, not because they mind contracting with a partner carrier, but because they know all the development resources are going to breaking unlocks rather than creating/enabling new features.
 
sanford said:
That would be hilarious. Really, in the long run, I think Apple and their partners have to find some value-added solution to the issue, if it's more than a niche problem. (Hard to tell as these forums are very definitely niche.) Otherwise it's lots of expensive tail-chasing that puts people off their iPhones, not because they mind contracting with a partner carrier, but because they know all the development resources are going to breaking unlocks rather than creating/enabling new features.
Click to expand...

Yea. I mentioned this in another forum.

What if a German T-Mobile iPhone user moves to the UK? I assume the person does a change of address in iTunes which will now see his iPhone in the UK as not being on O2? What now?

I guess Apple doesn't care as they're still getting money I guess from T-Mobile until the contract is up, even though it's now on T-Mobile UK's network... the phone was legally activated...
 
Hustle said:
the fact that many people are buying iPhones and unlocking them is unfair on the people that are spending a huge amount of money on the iPhone and its not so good 02 tariff.
Click to expand...

I paid the same amount as everybody for my iPhone, and I choose to spend a huge amount for my not so good Orange tariff.

Fundamentally, Its my choice!
 
gkarris said:
Yea. I mentioned this in another forum.

What if a German T-Mobile iPhone user moves to the UK? I assume the person does a change of address in iTunes which will now see his iPhone in the UK as not being on O2? What now?

I guess Apple doesn't care as they're still getting money I guess from T-Mobile until the contract is up, even though it's now on T-Mobile UK's network... the phone was legally activated...
Click to expand...

The reason nobody cares about these issues is that most people here are in the U.S. and don't travel abroad - only the U.S. military like to go abroad. I travel a lot and move quite frequently and feel that using any roaming service that requires local friends to dial a out-of-country number to reach me is unacceptable. Anybody who uses their phone internationally to receive calls will feel the same frustration.


They're not making it easy to move around, that's for sure. And people DO move around.
 
I've always gone with local throwaways when I'm out of the country. Of course I haven't had an iPhone that I'd prefer to carry, either.

p.s. I don't know if it's so much the US military *likes* to go abroad -- most of them probably fall into your generalization about close-to-home Americans -- but unlike most everyone else, they are often *compelled* to go abroad.

PDE said:
The reason nobody cares about these issues is that most people here are in the U.S. and don't travel abroad - only the U.S. military like to go abroad. I travel a lot and move quite frequently and feel that using any roaming service that requires local friends to dial a out-of-country number to reach me is unacceptable. Anybody who uses their phone internationally to receive calls will feel the same frustration.


They're not making it easy to move around, that's for sure. And people DO move around.
Click to expand...
 
PDE said:
The reason nobody cares about these issues is that most people here are in the U.S. and don't travel abroad - only the U.S. military like to go abroad.
Click to expand...

The "stay at home" attitude is prevalent where you live in Brooklyn and surrounding boroughs, for sure... heck, Manhattanites think you need a passport to leave the island! :eek:

Just kidding. Kind of. Anyway, Americans travel a lot. Civilians too. But since 1/8th of Americans are veterans, yes they've traveled that way as well.

I think the big difference is that it's not been seen as necessary or common to use a cell phone overseas, until recently. (Also, in Europe, you can cross several countries in a day.) So we're just not used to obtaining temporary foreign cell service.
 
Ahh unlimited data that fixes it all.. thank god its on that high speed 3g network otherwise.. hey wait a minute! :rolleyes:
 
daneoni said:
The OP who thinks he's accomplished something with his email
Click to expand...

I don't think he accomplished anything. But cut him some slack. He's 16 so by definition he probably does have way too much time on his hands. Plus he's filled with that youthful indignation that we all realize after wrangling through our 20s gets little done, period, unless we randomly strike a nerve with the right person. And he composed a polite, literate letter -- okay he's from the UK so he has a natural advantage in that department -- to a corporate executive expressing his views. I can't fault him for that. And he probably expected his letter to just fall down a hole rather than get any response at all, so therefore he was excited to post when he got a reply.
 
sanford said:
I don't think he accomplished anything. But cut him some slack. He's 16 so by definition he probably does have way too much time on his hands. Plus he's filled with that youthful indignation that we all realize after wrangling through our 20s gets little done, period, unless we randomly strike a nerve with the right person. And he composed a polite, literate letter -- okay he's from the UK so he has a natural advantage in that department -- to a corporate executive expressing his views. I can't fault him for that. And he probably expected his letter to just fall down a hole rather than get any response at all, so therefore he was excited to post when he got a reply.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

I just don't get why he felt the need to preach to the choir. Apple know hackers are getting into their phone and are supposedly addressing the issue. Steve even said they'll try to keep hackers out. In reality they'll re-lock the phone again to please partners and hackers will unlock it again and they'll lock it and hackers will unlock and they'll lock and hackers will unlock.....

My view is the OP feels he is being ripped off to an extent and wants a pat on the back reassuring him that he isn't which i guess he got in a way but how long will that last?
 
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