I went to pick up an iPhone from the Clarendon, Arlington, VA, store, and the iPhones were moving at a brisk pace. I think three other iPhones went out the door while I was there.

They were all out of nanos, too.

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I want my rebate.

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Hmm... Suddenly the iPhone is much more attractive...

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This is why you both love and loathe Apple. The products are great, but you hate them because they empty your wallet every keynote, because of that.... I have a tough decision, iPod Touch or iPhone...hmmmm

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and somehow they are still selling for $500+ on ebay and one which claims it is new and somehow unlocked for "any carrier" is going for $925 with over half an hour left...some people

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It's still going to be another $175 to get out of my contract with Sprint... so...
I'll be waiting for January, and then at that point, I might as well wait for iPhone 2.0

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Well I don't know about the price, but I just bought one due to the freely available unlock. $600 was a lot, but I would have paid it straight away if Apple left it unlocked. Now I can have it my way and cheaper.

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Several people on a plane I was just on had an iPhone. This was before the price drop, though.

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The great thing about the Piper Jaffray piece is how they don't see the announcement as proving their estimates wrong, but instead assume a sudden, massive increase to make up the shortfall.

Which would you think is most likely?

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@NICK A > "Well I don't know about the price, but I just bought one due to the freely available unlock."

Are you in the US?

Interesting. Overseas, people who I've shown my iPhone to have started going nuts when I tell them it's now pretty easy for them to get their own.

You can see their eyes move into logistics planning mode...!

"How safe is eBay?" "Do I have a friend in the US?" "When's my next business trip?" "Maybe I'll route my holiday stopover through Hawaii..."

I wouldn't be surprised at all if a certain proportion of the sales spike is due to international imports, whether eBay'ers buying them up to on-sell or otherwise.

The iPhone Dev team & co have actually done a great service to Apple in spreading the unlock, despite possible misgivings from Apple (or its misguided fanboys).

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I am one of the people striving to get an iPhone outside the US.
Purchasing one will probably not be a problem at all. My question however is: is there an internet site with a "for dummies"-like explanation about ALL the steps, files and stuff to unlock an iPhone?

I'd love to have one, but before having someone purchasing it for me I really would like to have a clear overview of all the things I will have to do to unlock it. Up to know I found lots of posts stating it can be done, but none with a lean and clear explanation of what and how it needs to be done. From "activation" without AT&T onwards...

I will not be in the category of "lost AT&T customers" anyway, so ethically I don't have any problems...

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Marketing students of the future will certainly study the iPhone case: A brand with a fanatical crowd of followers sells a gsm phone at a sick price and then cuts off 33% to make it sound like a bargain while keeping high profit margins for such an obsolete technology. iHype at its best.

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