Re: [Fed-Talk] iPhone Unlocked
Re: [Fed-Talk] iPhone Unlocked
- Subject: Re: [Fed-Talk] iPhone Unlocked
- From: Billy Lenox <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:55:43 -0600
What Apple Should have thought about was to sell the phone on the
Apple Site with a Choice of What provider the customer wants to go
with. ie: tmobile, verizon, cigular, Sprint. Apple would have made
more money by allowing the customer to choose instead of only
allowing it to a select group only.
Billy
On Jan 11, 2007, at 1:43 PM, Dave Schroeder wrote:
On Jan 11, 2007, at 1:15 PM, Zweigel, Emanuel D wrote:
Question for Apple folks...
In past, Palm has made unlocked Trio's available for the government
though GSA contractors. Being in the foreign service and an
advocate for all things Apple for diplomacy, I think the iPhone
could be asset for me and other Public Diplomacy officers. But
simply put...I can't afford to invest in a Cingular locked phone
with a two year contract. I travel and will be posted overseas and
need to swap SIM card often...this is not possible with a locked
phone. I know it may be too early to ask, but it might get Apple
Fed thinking.
While I agree with you 100%, here are a couple of points:
- Unlocked Treos are available to anyone directly through Palm
(though they cost more because they lack the carrier subsidy).
- Unlocked GSM phones are nearly always available, but you just have
to pay more (iPhone will not be in this category).
That said, unlocked, standalone versions of the iPhone are not
planned on being available, because Cingular has what Cingular's CEO
describes as a "multi-year, exclusive" arrangement with Apple. That
means that unlocked iPhones are unlikely to be available through any
channel, even government. There are a variety of reasons for this,
not the least of which is that Apple wants to tightly control a lot
of things that it considers intrinsic functionality of the iPhone,
such as data services and Visual Voicemail.
Further, carriers - including Cingular - DO allow customers to unlock
their GSM handsets for international travel. There are usually some
prerequisites, like you've been a customer for X amount of months,
etc., but the DO in fact do it. It's a hassle, but all the US GSM
carriers will do it, sometimes with some fighting. This is the *only*
way I can see an unlocked iPhone being a reality. *However*, the
arrangement Cingular has with Apple may specifically prohibit this.
We'll just have to wait and see.
- Dave _______________________________________________
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