Available as a SIM-free handset?

[RooDBwoY]

I'm almost certainly gonna buy an iPhone and hopefully before the UK release, which is bound to about 3 years after it's out of date.

My question would be, will it be available in the US as a sim-free handset with no branding by cingular or any other provider? Obviously i don't want all that junk on it with my living in the UK.

Does anyone know yet?

 

[ebrunn]

I'm almost certainly gonna buy an iPhone and hopefully before the UK release, which is bound to about 3 years after it's out of date.

My question would be, will it be available in the US as a sim-free handset with no branding by cingular or any other provider? Obviously i don't want all that junk on it with my living in the UK.

Does anyone know yet?

U.K release=End of 2007, not 3 years.

 

[RooDBwoY]

U.K release=End of 2007, not 3 years.

clearly that was exaggeration on my part. if you lived in the UK you'd get that we only get stuff after it's no longer new or cutting edge.

hence why i'm after one earlier than the uk release date...

 

[ebrunn]

i hear you on that. You guys always get hose'd on stuff getting over their. I doubt even if it was hacked you could use it over their though. The US version probably only works with the Cingular GSM network.

 

[chris]

i hear you on that. You guys always get hose'd on stuff getting over their. I doubt even if it was hacked you could use it over their though. The US version probably only works with the Cingular GSM network.

I believe the US version will work in the UK (if you're able to get it unlocked). The iPhone will be a world phone, so it's built to work on GSM networks worldwide. Since it'll be locked to Cingular, you'd pay through the nose to use it outside of the US.

While Cingular has the exclusive on iPhone 1, what about iPhone 2?

 

[Kabeyun]

Obviously i don't want all that junk on it with my living in the UK.

What junk do you mean?

-K

 

[RooDBwoY]

What junk do you mean?

-K

well, i imagine the states is the same as the uk with phones.

over here, most of the time when you buy a contract phone, the firmware/software is branded by the provider and usually a load of the functionality (in all their wisdom) has been removed.

ie. my S700i (great in its day) was on vodafone, but when i received it, you couldn't edit GPRS settings in any way and they'd removed the option of having MP3s on it, unless you'd downloaded digitally signed ones from the 'pay for' vodafone website! what a skank.

that sort of thing is what i mean

 

[Kabeyun]

This info seems to suggest that there will be no Cingular/AT&T presense on the iPhone itself. If Apple wouldn't even let them put their logo on the iPhone, I can't imagine they'd allow silly Cingular software either.

-K

 

[chris]

This info seems to suggest that there will be no Cingular/AT&T presense on the iPhone itself. If Apple wouldn't even let them put their logo on the iPhone, I can't imagine they'd allow silly Cingular software either.

-K

Silly Cingular software is right on. I've had Cingular service with the Treo 600/650. Never once did I use Cingular Xpress Mail. In fact, I'm not sure if I know anyone who does?

I think the most you'll see is a carrier logo at the splash screen. I met with Motorola in December and they mentioned how Microsoft and the Verizon had specific requirements as to how long their logo appears at startup.

-Chris

 

[RooDBwoY]

cheers for the link, i'll have a read through later.

sounds a bit dodgy with it being a 'one network only' phone at the moment. it'll be the same in the uk i imagine (for the initial release anyway)