Unlocked iPhone 3Gs For Sale…In A Land Far Far Away
Rejoice! Apple has seen sense and begun to offer unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 3Gs! Oh, make sure you’ve packed a lunch though, as you’ll have to make a trip to Hong Kong to get one.
The Hong Kong iPhone 3G site has pinged up an unlocked model of the handset without any fanfare, and have some decent price points too.
They are obviously a lot more pricey than getting a subsidised contract deal, with the 8GB model selling for 5,400 HK dollars (£370 or thereabouts) and the 16GB costing 6,200 HK dollars (just over £430).
With a sim locked version selling for £350 and £400 respectively in the UK, it isn’t too much more to pay for a version which accepts any SIM card. The only thing required is that the SIM be installed before the iTunes sync and activation.
Apple seems to be very agile in responding to consumers and networks. The iPhone was doing decent business whilst tied into specific carriers, but the move across to an unlocked structure must have been one which was market driven.
Locked contract iPhones are still currently on sale in Hong Kong, however, through the 3 network’s Asian arm.
The rest of China has recently been offered a 3G-less iPhone 3G, a model without any broadband connectivity (including Wi-Fi) as a consequence of the Chinese government’s preference of the TD-SCDMA network standard, as opposed to the more common HSDPA.
With these unlocked iPhone 3Gs being sold in Hong Kong without any official word or press release, could Apple be offering choice to China under the radar? The two countries aren’t that far apart…
Source: MacNN
