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Apple's sudden reversal of iPhone ordering policies may extend to future products, an SEC filing reveals. In a newly-submitted 8-K form, Synchronoss Technologies notes that Apple recently began allowing new iPhone 3G customers to effectively handle all steps of a purchase through its website, including ordering, activation and shipping. In the past a visit to an Apple or carrier store was a mandatory step, an obstacle deliberately imposed to discourage unlocking phones for unofficial carriers.

Synchonoss says that it has now signed an agreement to support "certain transactions involving selected Apple products" through Apple's website, potentially hinting that web-based activations will persist with one or more new iPhones, generally expected to be announced in June or July. The company is known to have handled iTunes-based activations for the first-generation iPhone; such a procedure may be unlikely to return however, given the greater opportunity it presented for unlocking. Web activation allows the preconfiguration of phones for a given carrier before a user has the chance to intervene.

by MacNN Staff