Apple Tuesday officially endorsed what hackers have already accomplished: selling an ‘unlocked’ version of the iPhone 4. The Apple Store announced Tuesday it is offering a 16GB and 32GB unlocked iPhone 4 – a day earlier than expected. However, there’s one hitch – the phone will work with only GSM carriers.
The unlocked iPhone 4 “arrives without a micro-SIM card, so you’ll need an active micro-SIM card from any supported GSM carrier worldwide,” the Cupertino, Calif. company announced. That proviso limits U.S. customers to either AT&T or T-Mobile. The unlocked 16GB version costs $649, with the 32GB handset priced at $749.
“If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone 4 is the best choice,” Apple explained. Locked versions of the 16GB and 32GB handset are already available for $199 and $299, respectively.
For years, iPhone owners seeking to use the handset on another carrier have relied on hacks to “jail break” the Apple device. The iPhone 4 was jail-broken nearly a year ago when the iPhone Dev Team released “ultrasn0w,” software that would unlock the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G.
Officially, Canadian and U.K. customers have been able to purchase unlocked iPhone 4 devices for some time. Today’s announcement brings that option to the U.S., one of Apple’s largest North American markets. Over the weekend, rumor leaked of Apple intending to offer an unlocked iPhone 4.
Although the unlocked handset is now available from two U.S. carriers, that could be cut in half if AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile proceeds without government intervention. The sale would result in just one U.S. GSM carrier.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
20 responses to “Apple Sells Unlocked iPhone 4 – But Just for GSM”
But why not a year ago when it would have actually mattered? Everyone who really wanted an iPhone 4 already got one and anyone who wants an iPhone now would like an iPhone 5. This isn’t as impressive as Apple would like to make you think.
Well the only american carrier it would really work on is at&t, since (last I checked) no other carrier has or uses mico-sim card which the iPhone uses. On top of that you can use it on t-mobile (and possibly other american GSM carriers, if their are any) but you won’t be able to get 3G access, since the 3G antenna t-mobile uses is different than the one at&t uses.
and really there is no advantage buying the unlock version (well unless you travel overseas a lot) since at&t does not offer a cheaper non-contract plan, thus buying the iPhone on a plan will end up being $450 cheaper in the long run.
And finally, whats up with the price increase? I’m dead certain that a non-contract at&t iPhone was $600 for the 16GB and $700 for the 32GB. now its $650 for 16GB and $750 for the 32GB. It should be cheaper now, not more expensive, since everybody is well aware next generation iPhone is around the corner. (in theory)
Is it likely that owners of previously bought prepaid locked AT&T iPhones will be able to legitimately unlock them soon via some means? I’m an Aussie who bought a locked iPhone 4 in the US after having one stolen whilst on vacation there, would like to be able to use it on my own home carrier without resorting to the dodgy Gevy SIM hack I’m currently forced to.
CDMA phones do not have a SIM and are locked to a carrier via their IMEI number (or the equivalent). In the past I have moved a Sprint phone to Verizon but at that time I was working for a cell phone manufacturer.
GSM phones are locked to a carrier and besides jail breaking the only way to unlock them is to get the unlock code.
AT&T will unlock any phone (except of course the iPhone) after the contract is satisfied. I hope they will now unlock the iPhone. It is a pain in the a… to pay the nasty rates when traveling.
…Why can’t you American companies just settle on ONE type of network? We’ve got about five networks that work with the iPhone, O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and Three, I think, basically the biggest networks in the UK. I’m still confused as to what GSM and CDMA are.
It is also worth noting that this is apparently the online store only. you can NOT go into an Apple store or any other partner store and buy this phone. It is basically custom built for you with no lock and no sim card. Also you can’t go into an Apple store and get a SIM. You must go to the carrier, who will almost certainly charge you for the card (well if it is ATT they will) etc.
These measures make sure they don’t have resellers coming in to scoop up the unlocked phones. They can monitor for repeated names, apple ids, addresses etc to try to slow such groups down or even stop them.
They will likely say no to the unlocking of an existing iPhone because they can. They will likely argue that said model is still under their exclusive contract blah blah. Which makes me wonder if Apple will just sell the iphone 5 unlocked straight up. Perhaps even for a lower price. With the way that solid state storage prices are going they could perhaps keep the phones at 8, 16 and 32 but knock $100-200 off them.
Then if we could just get the laws in the US changed so they can’t charge us the same rate plans for a phone we brought to them v one they subsidized that they need to recover costs.
I like to joke that here in the USA we love standards so much that we have dozens of them.
(GSM, TDMA, CDMA, WCDMA, CDMA2000, FDMA, UMTS, AMPS, HSPA, HSPA+, LTE, EDGE, GPRS, EV-DO, iDEN….)
Back when Cingular (Now AT&T) and Verizon was choosing what cellular signal to have may back when, a standard had not yet been official. Everybody was just then deciding. AT&T went with GSM for simultaneous talk and data. Verizon went CDMA because in theory it is actually faster and more reliable than GSM. No standard yet.
Cingular, AT&T, and T-Mobile went with HSPA for 3G because it was based of off what they already used GSM. Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel went with EVDO because it was based off of CDMA, which is what they already used. Still the standard had not been made yet as most countries were just now getting cell phones.
AT&T and T-Mobile started upgrading their 3G to HSPA+ for better speeds. Then T-Mobile had the brillant idea to start calling it 4G. Sprint went with Wi-Max for whatever reason (Probably less fees involved). Verizon was debating to go UMB because it was based off of CDMA or LTE because GSM had about 5 years ago officially became the standard. Verizon went with LTE. All the carriers (besides AT&T) started calling their upgraded networks 4G. AT&T was also planning to start using 4G when their LTE network started up, but since it was the only carrier without “4G” it started calling HSPA+ and LTE 4G.
We use to have 2 standards in the USA before 4G, GSM/HSPA and CDMA/EVDO. Now with 4G we have three, HSPA+, Wi-Max, and LTE. This may seem bad, but AT&T and T-Mobile is going to merge and Sprint will probably go bankrupt in a few years so only LTE will be left amongst the main carriers.
Feel free to correct me if I am wrong in the slightest bit. I like learning from mistakes.
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