Unlocked iPhone 4’s Now On Sale Through Apple: Requirements

Apple is now selling unlocked iPhone 4’s through it’s Apple stores and site. Both the 16GB and 32GB versions of the officially unlocked iPhone 4’s are now listed in Apple’s online store.  Customers have the option to choose from the  black or the white models.

The price of the 16GB unlocked iPhone is $649, the 32GB iPhone is available for $749. The current prices of carrier locked 16GB and 32GB iPhones of the same model are $199 and $299, respectively.

About the requirements: Apple’s website says, “It arrives without a micro-SIM card, so you’ll need an active micro-SIM card from any supported GSM carrier worldwide.” This is probably the most important sentence of the product sales page. This means the officially unlocked iPhone 4 will be available for GSM networks only. In the US, that’s AT&T and T-Mobile. Sprint, Verizon use CDMA. But GSM is widely available overseas, it’s the standard in Europe. So it’s likely that international travelers will be one of the strongest consumer segments attracted to unlocked iPhone 4’s.

An unlocked iPhone 4 is nothing new around the world. People from almost every country in the world have managed to use unlocked iPhone 4’s with their carriers. So why is Apple now selling unlocked versions themselves?  The possilbe reasons for this offer are 1) the sales of iPhone 4 have dropped as the consumers are anticipating a new version and 2) Apple is paring down it’s inventory to make room for the next version of iPhones. That supports the rumor about the introduction of iPhone 5 in the next September, as we mentioned here yesterday.


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