T-Mobile to offer Germans unlocked iPhones - at a price

It's a PR lie to the public. What T-Mobile is forced to do, what they say in public and what they really do are not the same. My parents tried to buy one in Germany. When they called several T-Mobile stores by phone and even when they visited one, they were given the same answer everywhere: "We don't sell the iPhone without a contract".

It's a PR lie to the public. What T-Mobile is forced to do, what they say in public and what they really do are not the same. My parents tried to buy one in Germany. When they called several T-Mobile stores by phone and even when they visited one, they were given the same answer everywhere: "We don't sell the iPhone without a contract".

Roger:

Just think how much easier life would be in the US if service was pay as you go and not tied to hardware. The cell manufacturers would be happy. They'd sell more handsets. Consumers would be happy because they could get the phone they want when they want and have a resale market for used phones and only paying for actual time and texts used.

Cell manufacturers would probably sell less handsets, because they'd cost more to consumers than under the current infrastructure. And depending on usage... unless your pay-as-you-go plans are significantly cheaper than those available in the US, a well-chosen plan is usually a better value.

Does anyone know if German T-Mobile iPhones can be used with American T-Mobile SIMs? I'm guessing not, but...

To be honest, that would make the phone about the same cost as a Palm Treo 750, my last one cost me about USD 1000 and is far worse than the iPhone. Also data plans are hell if you use an unlocked phone- I have one here in Australia and pay AUD 70 a month for voice plus 60 for data and only get 1GB for that price. If you think about it the deal with O2 AT&T et al is a bargain.

The only reason i would use an unlocked iPhone is because they are not available yet in Australia. as soon as they come out here with a decent data plan i'll get one legit.

Luckily my sister is in Germany with her husband who is in the forces, that makes them tax exempt at most major stores, That will take the iPhone down to at least 824 euros which at current conversion rates makes it around £590. That £320 premium is easily offset by the savings my current tariff offers over the disgusting iPhone tariffs. Bar any other hurdles I would call that a sale.

Gareth

Vodafone are sending a message to Apple and T Mobile.

You guys living in the US and who don't travel don't quite get how cells work in the rest of the world. The cell service is sold separately from the hardware (phone). Here in Russia, I went to Megafon and got a cell number and a SIM card. Then, I got my phone. Then a different phone. Then yet another different phone. And now, my most recent phone. I was able to sell two of my three previous phones. (The first one was so old there wasn't a resell market for it.)

Megafon doesn't care what phone I use and Nokia doesn't care who my provider is. I have a pay as you go plan. I pre-pay however much I want to my number and when it runs out, or gets low, I just add more. I pay the same for my phone calls regardless of the time of day or day of the week.

I never had a cell phone in the US because the contracts were so blindingly confusing and the rules and regulations out of control.

And, Nathan, the Europeans are not blowing this out of proportion, not at all. We (been here long enough to consider myself European at this point) are used to buying whatever phone suits our needs or our budget. We're also used to selling our old phones for cash money or a credit towards a new phone. I've done both. We're used to buying a SIM card and having it fit into any phone.

So, to have a certain phone tied to a certain carrier is, well, so American to us.

And, like Christina mentioned, I could get a Spanish SIM and do a pre-pay account and whenever I go to Spain, just pop out my Russian SIM, pop in my Spanish SIM and be good to go without having to have a second phone or monthly fees when I'm not there.

Just think how much easier life would be in the US if service was pay as you go and not tied to hardware. The cell manufacturers would be happy. They'd sell more handsets. Consumers would be happy because they could get the phone they want when they want and have a resale market for used phones and only paying for actual time and texts used.

At any rate, I'll be looking at these unlocked German and French phones very closely to see if they will work here without any problems. I don't want to buy a hacked phone, which is available here, and not be able to update it.

Nathan once a product has been sold it ceases to belong to the corporation that created it, and they have no rights to say what is done with it. So unless there's an iphone LEASE agreement I'm not aware of you aren't describing the legal reality of anything other than state run monopolies.
Saying that a corporation has all rights to anything it produces in perpetuity is a gross misunderstanding of capitalism, and what you describe is more of a corporate statist point of view than a laissez faire one

The important thing to note is that there are plenty of places that don't have iPhones for sale and some (like where I live in Guernsey) probably never will because Apple are far too big to deal with the area and none of the chosen carriers operate here.

For all those people travelling to one of these countries (or eBaying) an unlocked phone isn't because you prefer carrier x but simply because it's the only option if you want one.

The whole situation of subsidised hardware is a disaster for consumer rights and retailers. It has led to a throw-away culture with mobile phones that isn't healthy to the environment either.

[)amien