11/21/2007, 9:15am, EST
Wednesday, November 21st
T-Mobile offers unlocked iPhones in Germany [U]
(Updated with offer for current customers)
Reacting to a legal ruling, Germany's T-Mobile has announced that it will soon begin selling the iPhone without any required contract. A court yesterday granted Vodafone a preliminary injunction against T-Mobile, which since November 9th has been selling the iPhone for €399 with a two-year contract, much like the one enforced for AT&T's iPhone in the United States. Although T-Mobile had said it would ignore the injunction on at least a temporary basis, it has already devised a price for a contract-free product: €999, or $1,477. By contrast, the total cost of the iPhone with contract would be €1,575 ($2,329).
Vodafone has complained that T-Mobile's terms have been unfair, and that the company should not be allowed to lock phones to its service. Unlike the US, it is common in Europe for customers to unlock their cellphones; in some countries, it is even illegal for a carrier to sell phones without the option of an unlocked version. T-Mobile's option however will mark the first time the iPhone has ever been sold unlocked, as Apple has traditionally insisted that its product be an exclusive. Another unlocked iPhone will likely debut on November 29th, when it will arrive at the French carrier Orange.
Update: Reuters now reports that customers who have bought an iPhone from T-Mobile since November 19th will be able to get it unlocked for free, but some unspecified features will be broken as a result.
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There is no "lock" into signing up with AT&T to use the phone_
BUT - things like Visual Voice Mail are not available elsewhere_
HOWEVER - Now that T-Mobile is in charge of the German offering - this means that T-Mobile should now have the capability_ Except they may be locking it to European [or specifically - German] Accounts_
In theory [in the US] I could switch to T-Mobile and gain access to the Visual Voice Mail feature with enough finagling_
Also - with the moves by the European Provdiers to [downgrade] to EDGE technology for the phone to work on that front - that just makes it more viable to by a US version - work the trickery - and switch providers_
In all accounts - the customer is getting the short end of the stick - but looks more like German folks are getting the shorter or shortest end of the stick_
What fun_
also, how would you get visual voicemail working on a non-supported carrier? it's backend feature that downloads the voicemail to your phone locally.
so i suppose you have three options really:
1) buy locked device, full feature support, cheapest price. 2 year contract, possibly not your carrier of choice
2) hack locked phone, possible bricking in the future if you want a particular software update. cheap price, no contract so you can use with your carrier. probably not full feature support.
3) official unlocked phone, full support, possible loss of features on other carriers. very expensive price, but no contract and you have choice of carrier.
In the "free market" bastion we call America we let companies do whatever they want first and then let the corporations battle it out for market share. This is what cartels are about, when the "free market" is driven by the supplier.
At least in Germany and France the courts give consumers more say and ironically enough these two more socialistic nations are going to give their citizens more consumer choices.
Thus an open market often needs to have government regulations. Sounds strange to American ears, but it is true.
Anyway, I hope it drives a more open system overall and at least now we can see what Apple really needs to turn a profit on each phone when it isn't tied to a carrier.
Still very steep but half the price of the miscalculated conversion rate.
A bargain in some people's eyes!