Apple has been playing hard ball with its new iPhone 3G. The phone has been released in more than 20 country, but in each country Apple has made an agreement with a local operator to only sell the phone with, long, contracts. This also happened Hong Kong where Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. was the chosen partner and it sold the phone with a two year contract. However, it seems Apple softening its stroke and started selling iPhone unlocked and without contract.
Apple says on its website that iPhone 3G phones purchased from Apple Online Store can be activated with any operator and that you can use your current SIM cards and activate through it iTunes 8.
From what it seems, only people living in Hong Kong can enjoy this freedom, but at the same time it costs quite a bit. Apple wants 5400 Hong Kong Dollar for the 8GB model and 6200 Hong Kong Dollar for the 16GB model. This should translate into about $700 and $800 respectively, in other words up to $600 more than the locked version, but in the long run you might end up saving money.
Whether this is the first step out of many or if this is just a one time deal is something we don’t know, but it shouldn’t be a problem for Apple to do the same in other countries. At least in theory, the agreements they have with the individual operators may not allow it though.
