Contract-free iPhones selling in France

Orange has been selling unlocked iPhones since more than a year already. I bought some for friends in Dec 2007 and I can tell, they are completely unlocked. French law requires that. The new ruling doesn't mean they have to be unlocked (they have to, anyway), it only means that other carriers must be given the right to sell them as well.

LD, I really feel sorry for your moronic attitude.

As I happen to live in France, here's the real deal :

http://www.phonehouse.fr/fiche.php?node=34&type_offre=1&operateur=2&forfait=277&sku=IPHONE8GOUL

Shit, is that iPhone selling for 19€ VAT included ?
I guess yes !

The thing is the article is not really accurate.
It's a temporary court decision (while the case is being processed) that allows other carriers/shops to sell the iPhone too.
As a reaction, Orange droped the prices of the iPhone to 79€ and 99€ instead of 99€ and 129€ till Christmas.
Bouygues Telecom and SFR said they would sell it too, though they haven't yet came to an agreement with Apple regarding their share in revenues.
But other stores sell it either unlocked (to any carrier, even foreign) with no contract such as Fnac, or with a contrat with BT or SFR such as The Phone House (link above). I even think they sell it unlocked too cause Apple did not make locked versions for these carriers yet.

Here, in the Czech Republic, contract-free iPhones are sold for ~$640 (8 GB) and ~$750 (16 GB). That's the situation since day 1.

Only T-Mobile raised the price to ~$800 (8 GB) to prevent people from reselling iPhones on eBay.

Here, in Mexico, they've been selling contract-free iPhones for some time now. They're like 8,500 pesos the 8GB model and the 16GB is like a 1000 more. (620 & 700 dollars respectively)

$1200 is ridiculous. Normally with phones, we except that they have a high non-contract price because we assume that it's just really expensive to make phones. With the iPhone we have an example of a non-encumbered product that is basically the same thing minus a cellular radio: the iPod touch.

What Apple is telling us here is that it costs roughly $1000 to add a cellular radio to an iPod. Obviously this is ridiculous since phones are a dime a dozen these days. You can blame the cell phone industry for this. They're applying the same pricing scheme to phones that they have for text messages.

Some day I hope to see institutions like cell phone companies (and HMOs which have the same problem for that matter) fail. When you regulate everything so heavily, the benefits from competition don't apply. We get $1200 phones that are worth probably $100, and we get to pay $50,000 for minor surgeries that you could get in another country for $500.

I would be jealous if it weren't for the price.

Am I missing something here? I just bought one from AT&T, and after breaking contract and everything it's cost me just over $300. . .

Metaphor - Short answer: Apple holds a database of all IMEI-codes and their supposed carrier lock statuses. If your phone is unlocked there, it's unlocked for life.

Long answer: the first time you take your iPhone into use iTunes connects to the Apple DB and checks which carrier lock status your phone should have (e.g. Finland = Sonera, UK = O2 etc.) and sets your device to that status.

If you manage to get your carrier to unlock your iPhone, they'll update your IMEI lock status to Apple's DB via their iTunes as authorized admistrators for your IMEI. Next time you connect to iTunes the program will connect again to Apple and notice your status has changed, thus iTunes will unlock your device. Every time you do a FW update it checks with Apple what your lock status should be. Since it's set to "unlocked", iTunes will keep your device unlocked.

Very elegant system, in my opinion.

Hey, look at that, my prediction in the original thread was spot on:

"Mandating how a company does business is not in the best interests of the consumer or the companies. What happens if the price, say, doubles in France as a result because Apple can't guarantee certain funds it might have with an exclusive contract? I have a feeling all you socialist bastards will be bitching then too."

In Belgium the iphone is available 525€ (8gb) and 615€ (16gb) contract free sinds the beginning of the launch ... and you can use it on every carrier ...

I think french had better come buy them in Belgium :p