Carrier-free unlocked iPhones start shipping in Hong Kong

by Milind Alvares
Friday September 26, 2008

Carrier-free unlocked iPhones start shipping in Hong Kong

by Milind Alvares on September 26, 2008

In a surprising turn of events, Apple has introduced completely carrier-free iPhones in Hong Kong. The city already has iPhones being sold locked to 3HK (owned by Hutchinson), yet Apple [HK] has listed the unlocked phones, without any prior announcement or press release whatsoever.

iPhone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. Simply insert the SIM from your current phone into iPhone 3G and connect to iTunes 8 to complete activation.

The unlocked iPhones cost HK$ 5,400 (US$ 692), while a 16GB model costs HK$ 6,200 (US$ 794). That brings it to around Rs. 33,000 for the 8GB and Rs. 37,500 for the 16GB, if introduced in India.

So would you pay the extra cash just to be able to use the iPhone with your preferred carrier or is a contract-free but carrier locked iPhone good enough for you?

[Via MacNN]

Tagged as: hong kong, iPhone, iphone 3g, japan, macnn, prices

Reader Comments

Dinesh September 26, 2008 at 10:01 pm: i don’t see much difference between preferred carrier and contract free-carrier locked iphone. not many people changes carrier so often. it is nothing but contract in the latter case.
Azeem September 26, 2008 at 10:25 pm: I always thought that the iPhones should have been sold unlocked. Ofcourse there is this business thing going with locked phones but still unlocked phones would have been great. Unlocked here doesn’t mean unlocking the locked iPhones, it simply means the iPhone never locked in the first place. Good think
Milind Alvares September 26, 2008 at 10:43 pm goobimama.blogspot.com: @Dinesh: My point exactly. Airtel gives 500MB/mo free data transfer while Vodafone subsidised it to 28k. Contract free are only for those who absolutely must keep their old number.

@Azeem: As you can see, selling totally unlocked iPhone brings its cost up a few thousand bucks, which most customers can do without. I think contract-free is a great way to go about things especially since Airtel and Vodafone are very popular carriers so a carrier-free iPhone wouldn’t sell as well.
gmac September 27, 2008 at 12:05 am: it does make a difference over time. in the end, the guaranteed subsidies from a carrier like AT&T is what kept Apple tied. T-Mobile doesnt have a good 3G network, but their pricing on plans are without a doubt better than AT&T. Hopefully, T-Mobile will upgrade their network fast enough and Apple uses their leverage to free themselves of AT&T. Besides, its not like Sprint or Verizon would be involved, just 2 carriers, which mean competition that benefits the consumers.
Milind Alvares September 27, 2008 at 12:09 am goobimama.blogspot.com: I didn’t quite get you there gmac. In any case, in India, the Contract-free phone is literally contract free. You can choose not to use it, or the minimum rentals are below $5/mo (including calls and 500MB data with Airtel). So I think the contract-free but carrier locked phones are a pretty sweet deal out here.
larry l February 18, 2009 at 12:07 am: its cool