German court overturns iPhone ruling
updated 10:40 am EST, Tue December 4, 2007
iPhone ruling overturned
A German court has overturned a temporary injunction that was granted just two weeks ago, which forced Apple's wireless carrier partner -- T-Mobile -- to sell unlocked handsets to German consumers, according to BBC News. T-Mobile, complying with the temporary injunction, sold 'unlocked' iPhones for a whopping £1,000 each. That price compares to iPhones which come tied to T-Mobile with a 2-year contract, selling for £400 each.
The court's decision to overturn the recent injunction means Apple and T-Mobile are no longer obligated to sell iPhones that work with other cellular carriers.
France has mandated that customers wanting to purchase iPhones there be allowed to obtain an 'unlocked' version for use with any compatible cellular carrier.
Apple still holds an exclusive agreement with AT&T in the U.S., offering iPhones with 2-year contracts that are 'locked' into using only AT&T. Hackers have released software since just after the iPhone launched in late June, however, allowing consumers to obtain read and write access on their handsets and ultimately unlocking the devices to make them usable with other cellular carriers.
WRONG!!!!!!
12/04, 11:04am reply
While the injunction was overturned (that was not wrong), the prices are bogus. The phones in Germany are NOT 400 GBP and 1000 GBP for the unlocked version. The prices are in Euros, about 1/3 (roughly) cheaper.
Get with it MacNN. Besides basically rewriting the BBC article, you cannot even copy the prices?
chadpengar
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2001
agreed
12/04, 11:13am reply
slobby journalism
mullum
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2007
iPhone debacle
12/04, 12:06pm reply
iPhone is an opportunity lost for apple, to have far greater significance and leadership in the cell phone industry....
short term greed is blinding them to this moment in history, and the chance to do something different.
Jonathan-Tanya
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2004
first rule of yellow...
12/04, 12:08pm reply
journalism, initiated by Hearst, is of course, that one should never let the facts get in the way of a (good) story! Maybe MacNN should change their colour scheme (although the two "news network" n's are yellow already).
Feathers
Forum Regular
Joined: Oct 1999
relax
12/04, 12:44pm reply
sheesh. so they screwed up the currency unit. That's hardly a reason to kill their first born child. RELAX.
The story remains perfectly ok.
gudin
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2000
OMG!
12/04, 01:18pm reply
They got a currency unit wrong! I don't believe it! And it completely ruins the story. Because it should be that the unlocked iPhone sold for 2 1/2 times that of a locked one, and by using the wrong currency, well, it actually, that part is still fine.
But the currency! Come on! Being the very first error ever on MacNN, it shakes our trust in your news reporting!
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Currency
12/04, 11:13pm reply
You have a Mac. Type out the exact currency for us from the Dashboard widget.We don't need no fractions
ApeInTheShell
Senior User
Joined: Nov 2002