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The Talkshow Discusses the iPhone.

   2 October 2007, evening time

I’m listening to the 11th episode of the Talk Show. It’s actually better than I had originally given it credit for. That said, Gruber and Benjamin seem to be way off base with his take the state of the iPhone.

[locked phones are] just the way the industry is set up, it isn’t Apple’s fault.

It may be the case that most providers sell their phones locked to a particular provider, but there is no reason to say this is the only way to do things. There is certainly no reason for Apple to follow the lame example set by Motorola or Samsung. For starters, Apple has the infrastructure in place to sell unlocked phones themselves: both through their physical stores and online. No one forced Apple to team up with AT&T, Orange, or whomever else. So yeah, if Apple chooses to sell locked phones that is totally their fault. That said, it is Apple’s prerogative if they want to make money by locking their phone to a provider. The kick-backs from AT&T certainly can’t hurt their bottom line. It’s not a particularly consumer friendly decision, but it is Apple’s decision to make.

Dan Benjamin and Gruber also both seem to be unaware that it is pretty easy to buy those fancy Korean phones both in the US and here in Canada. (You’ll probably pay a premium to do so, but that’s life.) Thanks to eBay you can live in the middle of nowhere and still have a fancy-ass phone. So while it may take Samsung a long while to roll out an expensive phone in the US, there are people out there willing to do the leg work for them. This is also the case with Apple. I can buy hardware unlocked iPhones at Pacific Mall here in Toronto. (How they are fairing in a post 1.1.1 world I can only wonder.) Apple is the only company I can think of that is actually being malicious about closing up this gray market. Again, I agree they are well within their rights to do so, and they probably need to show due diligence in keeping their end of the deal with AT&T, but it is definitely another consumer unfriendly move on Apple’s part.

I’m not sure how Gruber can rail against Apple for their ring tone policy, which is lame but in line with how things are currently done, but not rail against Apple for locking up the iPhone, which is also lame but in line with how things are currently done.

People are wasting their time trying to unlock these phones. … It’s a pipe dream.

That remains to be seen. I expect the phones to be unlocked again shortly.

Update Oct 3rd: John Gruber responds to the MacWorld editorial iPhone 1.0 forever.

Update Nov 6th: 1.1.1 iPhones are basically even easier to unlock thatn 1.0.2 iPhones. And so it goes.

iPhone