T-Mobile has announced plans to charge the equivalent of US$1,478 for an unlocked iPhone in Germany, after deciding Wednesday to comply with a preliminary injunction issued by a court at the request of Vodafone, a rival carrier.
The carrier will continue to challenge the court's decision, but it seems that locking phones to a specific carrier is against German law.
According to T-Mobile's Web site, "numerous functions remain exclusively available to T-Mobile customers with a Complete rate plan." The only feature that the company singles out as missing, however, is the visual voicemail. T-Mobile also says it has a more complete EDGE network than its rivals, but those looking to switch to Vodafone or other carriers may not care so long as they get data access in their city or town.
According to Reuters, a locked iPhone in Germany will cost US$2,330 over the life of a two-year contract: US$1,740 for the service plan and US$590 for the iPhone. T-Mobile said it will still offer that deal for iPhones locked to its network, and that the special iPhone rate plans are 40 percent cheaper than the "comparative use" of another data-enabled phone through T-Mobile.
Unlocking iPhones before involved modifying software and was subject to retaliation from Apple in the form of software updates, such as the infamous OS X 1.1.1 update. An unlocked iPhone from the factory could therefore command a higher price than one that had been jail broken and unlocked using the current methods.
Still, will it command upwards of US$1,500 in order to make resale worth the effort? A user would have to pay his carrier the data plan subscribed, working it out to US$2,678 over two years even with a low-end plan, compared with the US$2,330 paid over the life of T-Mobile's two-year contract.
That, of course, is probably not a coincidence. T-Mobile might have to offer an unlocked iPhone, but there's apparently no requirement as to how much they have to charge for it.
And if Apple struck the same kind of revenue-sharing deal with Deutsche Telecom, T-Mobile's parent, as it did with AT&T, the companies have to come up with some way to make sure Apple gets its cut.
Apple and Orange (ha!) will also have to offer an unlocked iPhone for the French market to comply with that country's telecom laws. The phone will go on sale next week, and will command a "premium" price, according to the International Herald Tribune.
This article was originally a blog post on News.com.
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