On Jul 19, 2007, at 6:50 PM, Joshua Cearley wrote:
> Hrm, it looks like it may be a matter of time before someone rips the
> carrier lock from it. Other sim cards and activation bypassing is a
> major step. It's a shame Apple locked it to AT&T.. There are much
> better carriers out there with better rates.
The only other carrier the iPhone could possibly run on in the US is
T-Mobile. Considering how deeply invested they are in the Sidekick,
they probably refused to sell the iPhone. No doubt AT&T offered some
incentive for being the exclusive iPhone carrier, so I doubt that
anyone at Apple saw even a hint of upside to offering an unlocked
version.
Show me a phone you can buy in America from a cellular phone company
that is NOT carrier-locked. The only way to get unlocked phones any
more is to spend hundreds of dollars for the models that the
companies give away for free.
I fail to see how any of this is Apple's fault or a failing of the
iPhone. It's a GSM phone, so it won't run on Sprint or Verizon. CDMA
is dead-end technology and you can't sell CDMA overseas. Making the
iPhone GSM was the right thing to do. Locking it to one company is
the same thing that Nokia, Siemens, Samsung, Sony, Ericsson, LG and
every other cellphone maker does. Why pick on the iPhone when it's
the entire industry that needs fixing?
...and considering that people seem very happy to get their "free"
carrier-locked phones instead of paying $200 for the same phone that
they could take to another carrier, why pin this on the companies? It
looks like the consumers are the ones dictating the terms.
Steve
PS I paid over $400 for my unlocked Treo rather than get a carrier-
locked one for $150. So don't blame me.
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/Received on Fri Jul 20 05:11:50 2007
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