Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackEleven
Why wouldn't Apple provide the tool? Good question about preventing carriers from selling products, I'm not sure what would happen. I imagine all the big phone manufacturers could provide unlocked phones though. Most of the rest of the world outside North America (Europe in particular) has much more restrictive laws already regarding locking of phones than what this legislation is proposing.
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Word on the street has it that Apple has wanted to sell the iPhone here unlocked since day one. They already do it in every other country in the world. It's just that the carriers here wouldn't allow it.
Now that the iPhone is pretty much everywhere and is only going to get even more market penetration with iPhone 4, Apple no longer cares what the carriers want... and are going ahead with their original plan of unlocked phones.
The other theory I've heard is that Apple deciding to sell unlocked iPhones in Canada is in response to the Canadian Carrier Coalition refusing to alter their contract terms from 3 years down to 2 years, like many other carriers do. Apple has always hated the Canadian three-year contracts, and they finally just said, "Enough. If you won't go to two-year contracts like everyone else, then we'll just sell it unlocked and you guys can fight over whether or not you even get a one-year contract from people."
I guess it depends on who you talk to... As I'm sure everyone already knows, the Apple higher-ups (the ones who would actually know the details) are pretty tight-lipped.