Plan-Free iPhones Now Available…But Still Locked to AT&T

By Geoff Duncan March 23, 2010

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Apple has long been offering unlocked iPhones for sale in some international markets, enabling mobile customers to walk into a retailer and walk out with an iPhone in their hand that isn’t tied to a particular carrier or saddled with a multi-year service contract. Of course, those phones are considerably more expensive than their subsidized locked-and-contracted counterparts. Now, Apple is apparently selling contract-free versions of the iPhone in the United States…however, the iPhones are still locked to AT&T.

Apple is offering the 8 GB iPhone sans contract for $499, and the 16 GB and 32 GB versions of the iPhone 3GS for $599 and $699 respectively. Customers are limited to purchasing one contract-free iPhone per day, with a total purchase limit of 10 contract-free iPhones over a lifetime.

Apple-watchers are trying hard to see signs of the company’s mobile strategy in the move: is the idea to clear out inventory of existing iPhone 3G and 3GS models before new iPhone hardware debuts? Or to offer a full-price version of the iPhone that competes with the $529 unlocked version of the Google Nexus One? Neither theory seems to hold much water: with the full-price iPhones still locked to AT&T (thus requiring an AT&T sim to work), the phones aren’t really unlocked. It’s hard to imagine many customers paying that much money for an iPhone merely to use it with AT&T pay-as-you-go plans, or being lured away from the completely-unlocked $529 Nexus One just for the opportunity to work with AT&T.

In March of 2009, Apple briefly sold the iPhone 3G without a contact for $599 and $699, respectively; the move preceded the launch of the iPhone 3GS by a few months.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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