25% of iPhones UNLOCKED

It's a cat and mouse game. Every time Apple releases a new firmware that re-locks the iphone, the Jailbreaker team comes up with a new version that re-unlocks it again.

 

Not in the next 5 years. There's a contract with AT&T. If they break that, they'll have to pay the ETF.

 

Apple makes good products but their business model sucks for their consumers.

Could you imagine if apple was into oil, Gas would be 5 bucks a gallon and you would have to fill up at a Apple gas station of your car would self destruct.

I think the fad of the iPhone is on the downward spiral, they made some money now its time to open that thing up to everyone. But that wont happen as the iPhone is now in Europe and Apple would have to worry about the US selling them unlocked iPhones.

 

i really dont see sales dropping on the iPhone. espically with tax returns coming. people are still asking about them constantly. if it drops in price just 50-100 dollars they would be low on supply again. regaurdless of anything.

 

'Gas' is about $7.50/gallon here.

I'm not sure I understand that last part. Unlocked iPhones are already available in France.

 

they are saying you cant get one unlocked here. but no provider here sells unlocked phones, though sometimes they will give you unlock capabilities...except for the iphone.

 

You must forgive us. We "Yanks" prefer our petrol under $2/gallon. Unless you live in a large city like Washington, or New York most cities and towns don't have good public transportation. Especially in the suburbs, where most of the US population lives there is no public transport, and you need a car to go anywhere. Take for example my mom's house. She is 5 miles from the nearest convenience store, and about 8 miles from the nearest grocery store, and about 12 miles from the nearest bus stop. If fuel was that expensive here our economy would grind to halt.

-Jay

 

i have a bicycle in the backyard just in case.

 

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Nokia6555b/2.0 (03.31) Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.3.1.17.06.3.1.17.0)

I have a horse for that.

 

im not that far in the country.

 

Didn't realise what I was starting! lol I don't drive myself (although my fiance does), but I suppose we do have a reasonably good transport system where I live so that I don't need to drive. I can use the train, bus or subway to get just about anywhere in the city although it has to be said that public transport isn't that cheap either (except if you are are a pensioner as it's free); an all day ticket on the bus is £3 (around $6)!

 

That's true. Just wait until the 3G version comes out.

 

According to the 2000 US census 70% of the US population lives in the top 100 markets which happen to be the largest cities. Therefore, most of the US population lives in cities where there is public transportation one way or another.

 

Whatever... Anyway to get this thread back on track, if Apple is so concerned about people unlocking the iPhones why not make it like a Blackberry. Have the internet, text, and email proxy through Apple's servers. Then have the servers setup to only accept connections originating from "approved" domains, like ATT/Cingular. That way someone with TMO tries to connect the server deines them. Their iPhone is no good for Email, MMS, text, or internet. Voice only. Lots of unlocking would stop.

Apple should pay me for ideas like that...

-Jay

 

I thought that Apple and AT&T's deal was only intended to go until 2009 and if they wanted to extend it, they could? I think it would be wise of Apple to end it in 2009. They should see that people don't want AT&T service or just don't want to switch because they're happy with their service (or they plain out just don't have AT&T in their area). I believe Apple should release the iPhone for T-Mobile and other minor GSM carriers at that time as well as release a CDMA version of the iPhone for Verizon, Sprint, Alltel, and other minor CDMA carriers. This is obviously what the people want. The RAZR wasn't locked to AT&T for THAT long!!!

 

Still, Apple's beef is that they are missing revenue from data plans that they would get from their authorized carriers. If it proxied through their servers they could end the unlocking business. They can either deny users from unapproved carriers, or they can bill those other users separately for their usage.

-jay

 

sure there is unlocked phones but you will pay more for the service and its not guarenteed to turn into a brick on the next upgrade. If they allowed unlocked phones in the US then you would have all kinds of sourse selling legitimate unlock iPhones world wide, apple would have to remove the 900 and 1800 to slow it down.

 

i think they will come out with a true UMTS version first. a True 3G that still is compatible with most of the globe makes much more sense.

not to mention i really dont see your point about people dont want ATT service...70million people seem to disagree with you. :wink:

 

Wirelessly posted (Sammy U540: SCH-U540/1.0 NetFront/3.0.22.2.5 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

No one has convinced me that the iPhone is truly a device worth owning. Sure, roughly two million have "seen the light", but how long before features found in the iPhone are migrated into other devices? A Voyager 3 would probably be a strong contender. Apple invested quite a bit into this device, but they also had a consumer friendly name to back it up. Eventually you will see a device that, while not hyped as much, will bring with it a more robust feature set. If I jumped ship from Verizon for a phone, it would not be for the iPhone, more like the Tilt.

 

You can get various skins and programs to set up a Tilt, or any other Windows Mobile device with a touch screen just like an iPhone. I've been tempted to try "Slide to unlock" on my Tilt, but since I dislike Apple so much I've resisted.

-Jay

 

I'm familiar enough with skinning from my time spent on the Palm Tungsten E|2. Palm Revolt was a great application - made the device look pretty sharp. With Windows Mobile I'm sure the skinning can get more intricate given the OS's design.

 

Yeah, I could definitely see a 3G iPhone coming in the very near future. (Like this year) But I think it would be smart still for Apple to quit their agreement with AT&T and go with more carriers after 2009, because it appears that's what consumers want. (With 27% of iPhones being unlocked)

Well, you have to remember also how many of the 70 million of AT&T's customers who were acquired through acquisitions. Sure, they have the option of switching, but not very many people switch carriers once they get bought out. When you look at Verizon, they've made like no acquisitions (except for what's going on right now) and they're adds are purely from people who like their service. I know that AT&T has had equal adds but they've also had huge acquisitions to put them ahead of Verizon.

I've thought about getting the iPhone, but if ever a CDMA verision were released for Verizon, there would be no question that I would stay with Verizon. I have never been a fan of GSM with it's interference and such with electronics and CDMA (for me and most people I talk to) has better voice quality even in fringe areas. For example, my mom has always had a GSM phone and when I let her use my phone once, she was amazed at how much my phone sounded like a lindline even when we live out in the middle of the woods. That's why I would choose a CDMA iPhone first. (I'm hoping WCDMA is a lot like CDMA, but nobody has clarified this for me. I'm imagining that since Qualcomm makes chips for both that they would be almost the same)

 

I've had no problems on my 3G phones as far as voice quality goes, and my GSM phones I've disabled AMR half rate, which gives a marked improvement in voice quality.

-Jay

 

That's a valid point, but to be fair I don't mind paying higher taxes as long as the money is used to help people.

 

Maybe I'm being really daft here, but I'm still not sure I understand. The unlocked iPhones available in France are legitimate, they are sold by Orange with the full knowledge of Apple. I imagine that non-French can buy a legitimately unlocked iPhone in France although they do cost quite a bit more than the locked versions.

 

I wonder if the French ones were done so they only displayed the menus in French, to discourage sales outside of France?

-Jay

 

Interesting point, perhaps someone knows the answer to clear this up?