The Register, (via Engadget Mobile) is reporting that T-Mobile UK is slipping unlocked iPhones to high-value customers in an attempt to keep them from switching to the exclusive UK iPhone carrier, O2.

It seems if you do indeed appear to be a big spender on T-Mobile, you just need to find a willing customer service rep, threaten to take your money and go to O2, and they’ll slip you an unlocked iPhone (smuggled over from T-Mobile Germany, perhaps?). Apparently, however, they’re limiting this to 150 units a week so as not to be too overt — or called out to joust by angry O2 bigwigs.

Any UK readers nab one?

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T-Mobile UK Offering Unlocked iPhones to Retain High-Value Customers?

Buy.com is offering the iPhone 3GS at 32GB “Never-Locked LEGALLY Unlocked” for $999. You can also get the iPhone 3G at 16GB for $849.

While seller DB Electronics doesn’t source the gear, we can only guess they’re picking them up somewhere Apple sells unlocked iPhones (like Hong Kong) and reselling them here (if someone knows better, drop us a correction in the comments).

What that means for manufacturers warranties and/or Apple Care, well, we don’t fancy the plane ride. If you don’t either, make sure you establish how the reseller will be covering exchanges/repairs for you.

So, any world-travelers going to take the plunge at 1K?

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Want a Legit Unlocked iPhone 3GS 32GB? Got $999

Buy.com is offering iPhon 3G, “officially” unlocked, for $799. We’re not sure if these are imported units from markets like Hong Kong or Taiwan, where Apple themselves sells unlocked units, or what the deal is, or if $799 is even a deal for you to not have to worry about Jailbreaking or cat and mouse games. But, if you have the extra bills in your pocket and alternate and international carrier support is worth the premium to you, you might want to check it out.

Anyone hitting the buy now button?

[via 9to5mac via GeekBrief.tv]

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Want an Apple-Blessed Unlocked iPhone 3G for $799?

This past Saturday Apple posted a new support page, a simple list of all the carriers currently selling iPhone 3G’s and which ones are locked and which ones are unlocked. As all AT&T customers know, our iPhone’s are locked down tight until the Dev-Team can do something about it. I suppose if you were that desperate and crafty you could use this list of unlocked carriers to get yourself one, for a hefty fee of course… and be sure to know how to speak fluent Chinese if you want support for one purchased in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

[Via Engadget Mobile]

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Unlocked iPhones Around the World

Good news? Looks like there really is a new “Home” option for iPhone activation in the US. Bad news? Looks like it has nothing to do with the iPhone being sold unlocked. Apple Insider, who broke the rumor, updates as follows:

In order to service these customers, a special home pre-qualification web site has been set up so that users can find if they are qualified by AT&T for a phone unit subsidy. Users can set up their account at home so that everything is ready to go when they make their iPhone 3G purchase at a retail store. The new “Home” option that retail employees are seeing on their EasyPay terminals is designed to allow them to use this home pre-qualification step to accelerate the transaction of a new iPhone 3G. That also indicates there is no impending potential for unlocked iPhone 3G sales in the US, although this is expected at some point.

Apple Insider is also sticking to the 32GB SKU, but maybe only after the holidays (though presumably that means short term, not, you know, any point after the holidays and into future months/years…)

Magic 8-Ball?

• Unlocked iPhones in the US? Very Doubtful
• 32GB iPhone in the *near* future? It is certain

Interesting! Can’t wait to see how this one pans out!

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Rumor Smashed: No Unlocked iPhone 3G in the US

Apple Insider in reporting that a new option has popped up in US-based Apple (Retail) Stores: Home. Previously, the only options were Upgrade existing iPhone, New AT&T Single, New AT&T Family, and Additional AT&T Line. They conjecture this may mean a new, contract-free, unlocked take your iPhone 3G home and do what you want with it. They rightly point out that this is already an option in some countries which require unlocked handsets by law, though the price is typically as astronomic as the freedom that comes with it. Will this happen? And will it be “unlocked” meaning it can run on other US carriers only (i.e. T-Mobile), or truly SIM unlocked to run with any card, in any county, around the GSM world? We’d love it, but we’ve been learned not to let our expectations get ahead of corporate avarice before…

Also, they point to a possible capacity bump in time for the holidays. With 8GB supplies running low, they say, 32GB might just be on the horizon. This, of course, would require Apple to switch from the current NAND flash chips they’re using, which max out at 16GB on the iPhone and 32GB on the iPod Touch (which lacks the radios and hence has double the space for the memory). Apple bought tons of the old NAND chips before the 3G slipped, and we haven’t seen any rumblings of them ordering the higher capacity ones yet, but the same thing did happen last year, so…

Who wants an unlocked 32GB iPhone 3G (in Product Red, no doubt!) wrapped up for them this year? And who’s got the probably close to $1K to drop on it?? Let us know!

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iPhone 3G in the US: Unlocked and 32GB Refresh?

Engadget, via typically credible Italian newspaper La Repubblica, reports that a 3G iPhone will be coming soon to Telecom Italia, and what’s more: without carrier or contract lock-in.

Ch-ch-ch-che?

First, a quick look at our scoreboard, if this be true:

Next, Apple Insider brings some details:

[A] formal agreement on the matter was signed last week when Franco Bernabè, chief executive officer of TIM’s parent company Telecom Italia, met with Steve Jobs at Apple’s Cupertino-based headquarters. Under the terms of the deal, TIM will reportedly receive a several month exclusive on sales of a 3G iPhone through its retail shops [...] Apple is also reported to have agreed to terms by which the new iPhone will be sold at a higher price than in other European countries, but without a carrier lock and two-year service agreement.

Apple Insider further notes that, given the high percentage of pay-as-you-go plans in Italy, this unprecedented arrangement would give both the carrier and customers multo-flexibility in selling units and either using them on TIM, or with other providers, with plans or with pre-purchased bundles/minutes.

No comment, of course, from either Cupertino or Roma, but we’ve repeatedly repeated Apple COO Tim Cook’s comments on being open to other business models, and this particular one is very intriguing to say the least.

How does the idea of a contract-free 3G iPhone coming soon (albeit to Italy) grab you?

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iPhone Risk: Italia Independant! 3G Senza Una Lock-In?

Ars Technica brings word that Australia may just be giving Singapore, the Netherlands, and Mexico a run for their international money in the great race towards the 7th official iPhone launch.

If rumors are to be believed, resellers have been told to say g’day to an UNLOCKED 3G iPhone down-under come the end of June. This would bring our current score to:

Without an Apple retail presence or strong carrier-branded stores, resellers are said to be key in getting the device out to market in Oz, and Apple COO, Tim Cook did say they would be open to different business models, but UNLOCKED?! And 3G in June?

Personally, I hope this is true as unlocked may be the only way we’ll get an iPhone in Canada any time soon (though 3G will do little good if it’s $1K a month…), but I’m taking this with a kangaroo-sized grain of salt for now… What do you think?

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iPhone Risk: Australia’s Apps, Mate!

During our last regularly scheduled podcast, we received an dispatch from Hong Kong written by one Janric. We already knew that there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 unlocked iPhones in China alone, and Janric confirmed that you can’t walk down a Hong Kong alley without tripping over somebody that has one:

I just want to comment out on the news about the 400K iPhones that are loose in china. I’m based in Hong Kong and it’s no secret that you can buy the iphone here almost anywhere. The iPhone is such a hit here that I can almost see 1 iPhone per day (excluding mine ofcourse). In my office alone, there are about 5 unlocked iPhones in use.

Don’t believe it? Check out these photos that Janric snapped in an area of Causeway Bay – just a random two block stroll:

We’ve heard firsthand reports that it’s pretty much the same situation on the opposite side of the planet (Sweden) as well. So basically it’s as easy to get an unlocked iPhone in areas Apple hasn’t made official yet as it is to get a locked-up one in the official zones. If Apple wants to get their preferred revenue sharing going in these places, they need to step up the pace of worldwide releases.

Thanks, Janric!

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Unlocked iPhones All Over Hong Kong

Tom Cook, Chief Operating Officer of a little Cupertino company named Apple, spoke at the Goldman Sachs Investment Symposium, mercilessly teasing the faithful with the following bombs:

• Apple is not “married to any [single carrier exclusive] business model”. It’s apparently all about the “best phones in the world”, baby, and if unlocked, CDMA, and/or pre-paid proved, in the future, to provide the greatest sense of childlike wonder (or complies with future Congressional mandates), Apple could (possibly, maybe) go with that flow.
• Apple believes the global unlocking epidemic is a good sign of the iPhone’s potential, and that there will always be a percentage of unlocks in the wild because of the high demand.
• That the upcoming iPhone SDK would allow developers to “only be limited by [their] imagination.” (And whatever restrictions Apple imposes on accessing the metal and distributing via iTunes, ‘natch).

To the delight of Wall Street, Cook also continued to hold firm on the 10 million iPhone march through the end of 2008.

Check out Apple Insider for all the details.

Is Cook telling us Apple will make good on their promised smart phone utopia? Or Is he just cranking on his own mini Reality Distortion Field? Hit the comments and let us know what you think!

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Apple COO Speaks: AT&T Exclusivity, SDK, and more…