Quarter of US iPhones 'unlocked'
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More than a quarter of US iPhones have been "unlocked" to work on rival networks, a study says.
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Can't get an iPhone? Here's how some hot cell phones from other manufacturers measure up.
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InfoWorld - A company that unlocks cell phones in Europe said it is close to having an application that will allow customers to unlock their Apple iPhones so they can use SIM cards from carriers other than AT&amp;T to activate the phones.
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A member of iPhoneSimFree, another group that claims to have unlocked the iPhone, answers some questions.
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Apple's iPhone accounted for just under 2% of smart phone sales in July, making it the best-selling smart phone in the U.S., a market study says.
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Blog: An informal survey of AT&T stores across the country suggests each store had no more than 100 iPhones prior to launch--many with far less--while Apple stores had plenty.
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A video showing the founder of a Belfast, Northern Ireland company unlocking the iPhone hit the Web early Wednesday U.K. time as proof that software exists that can unlock Apple Inc.&#39;s device for use with carriers other than AT&amp;T Inc.
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Score one for the unlockers. After months of waiting, the newest iPhones are now unlockable thanks to the tireless work of one programmer.
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A video showing the founder of a Belfast, Northern Ireland company unlocking the iPhone hit the Web early Wednesday U.K. time as proof that software exists that can unlock Apple Inc.'s device for use with carriers other than AT&amp;T Inc.
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Those waiting for a solution to use the iPhone on a network other than AT&T may have found it: a six-man team has claimed to crack the SIM lock. This means the iPhone will work on T-Mobile and other GSM carriers overseas.
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If you&#39;re fed up with using an iPhone on AT&T&#39;s network, you now can download software to unlock your Apple handset. One package, developed by iPhoneSimFree, is now available from resellers in the U.S., the Middle East, and Europe. It&#39;ll set you back $99. Once installed, though, the app allows you to use your iPhone with another carrier.
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Around one-tenth of all iPhones sold in 2007 wound up unlocked and in use on China Mobile's network, which shows serious iPhone demand in China but represents lost revenue for Apple and its partners.
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Users may see an iPhone with 3G technology in the next six months, a financial analyst said Monday, citing waning inventory of Apple&#39;s current iPhone and the increasing demand in Europe for 3G products.The iPhone shipments are likely to be weak during the March quarter, and inclusion of 3G technology in the phone could ensure that Apple meets its target of shipping 10 million iPhones in 2008, analyst Richard Gardner of Citigroup said in a research note on Monday. 3G is a high-speed wireless communications standard that provides broadband Internet capabilities to cell phones and mobile devices.An iPhone upgrade to include 3G technology could help the company forge more relationships with carriers as it builds a European presence. &quot;We believe that lack of 3G has been a significant headwind for iPhone in Europe where 3G is already pervasive,&quot; Gardner said.During meetings with Citigroup, Apple reiterated its plan to introduce the iPhone into additional European countries and Asia by the end of 2008, Gardner said.In a December report, Shaw Wu of American Technology Research said a 3G iPhone would likely ship around the middle or in the second half of this year after network coverage and battery life issues are addressed.During the iPhone rollout in the U.K. last year, Jobs said that 3G chips were &quot;power hogs&quot; but also said he expected to see better battery consumption this year. Chip vendors, including Broadcom and Arm, are developing power-efficient 3G mobile chips with multimedia capabilities.3G is still not widely deployed in the U.S., Wu wrote in a report. Apple could possibly position the new iPhone as a high-end smart phone with the current iPhone being shipped as a more mainstream product, Wu said.Apple&#39;s 3G plans in the U.S. could get a boost from AT&amp;T&#39;s announcement last week that it was expanding its 3G wireless coverage to 350 major U.S. markets, including all 100 of the largest cities.Until the iPhone becomes available in more countries, unlocking numbers will remain high. But as the iPhone&#39;s presence expands, &quot;most consumers will prefer to use iPhone on the network with which Apple has a relationship -- only then can they take advantage of innovative features, such as visual voicemail and ongoing software updates,&quot; Gardner said.Up to 35 percent of all iPhones sold since its launch in June have been unlocked and sold in countries where Apple does not yet have a formal relationship with a wireless carrier, Citigroup&#39;s Gardner said.There has been plenty of speculation surrounding the release of a 3G iPhone. Last year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and AT&amp;T CEO Randall Stephenson separately said a 3G iPhone was coming in 2008, though the exact date is shrouded in secrecy.
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Network operator O2 (UK) Ltd. will sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone in the U.K. from Nov. 9 for #269 (US$538), the companies announced Tuesday, marking the start of the iPhone's move into Europe.
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Unlocked and loaded Efforts to open up the functionality of Apple's iPhone to users disinclined to sign up to expensive two year contracts with AT&amp;T are growing.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Two claims of unlocking Apple's iPhone have surfaced in recent days, and a third is set to be announced Saturday. One blogger, George Hotz, on Friday posted a step-by-step tutorial for unlocking the iPhone that involves both hardware and software modifications. His blog also includes photos of an iPhone he said is unlocked and shows T-Mobile as the service provider. At another site, iPhoneSimFree.com, a company claims it can unlock iPhones through software only. A screen image with an item about the company on Engadget.com also shows an iPhone displaying the T-Mobile name. In addition, John McLaughlin, founder of Uniquephones, said his Belfast, U.K., company will be posting software on Saturday that iPhone users can download to unlock their handsets to work with any SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card on any network they choose. The software should hit the Web at www.iphoneunlocking.com between noon and 2 p.m. Eastern Time, he said. The iPhone is based on GSM, the most widely used cellular technology, but today, the hot phone is sold only in the U.S. and locked into AT&T's network. Unlocking would allow iPhone owners to break the required two-year contract with AT&T and choose their own GSM carriers. More importantly, it would allow people outside the U.S. to own and use the highly prized device. With an unlocked GSM phone, it's possible to change carriers by putting in a different SIM card. Uniquephones' McLaughlin said 450,000 users already had signed up at iphoneunlocking.com, which the company set up soon after the iPhone was released for people interested in having their iPhones unlocked. The Web site was not active at the time this story was written, but it should be reactivated Saturday with options for users to access the unlocking software, he said. McLaughlin plans to charge between $25 and $50 for the software, but users who had already signed up will have access to the code at either a 25 percent or 50 percent discount. Uniquephones will let people anywhere in the world download the software. The company already unlocks phones from many manufacturers, including Nokia and Motorola. There were about eight locks that Uniquephones engineers had to break in the iPhone software to come up with the code that will unlock the phones, and engineers in several countries had been working around the clock since the phone's release to do so. McLaughlin declined to go into great detail but said one of the most difficult locks to break was contained in the handset's electrically erasable programmable read-only memory. There also was a lock in the handset's permanent phone memory as well as other places in the iPhone's software. In the end, it was an engineer in Russia who came up with the software for unlocking the phone, McLaughlin said. McLaughlin claims he is using his iPhone on the Vodafone network in the U.K. He added that both Vodafone's network and the T-Mobile U.K. network allow iPhone users to download data faster on their iPhones than AT&T Wireless's network does. Although almost 100 percent of the iPhone's features work even when the handset is unlocked and using another carrier's SIM card, the Visual Voicemail feature will only work on AT&T's network because of the way the feature is designed, McLaughlin said. Visual Voicemail lets users easily view the messages that have been left for them. The iPhone has been a hot target for unlocking since its June 29 launch, both because of its advanced design and features and because AT&T has an unusual long-term exclusive relationship with Apple. It's common for U.S. mobile operators to lock the phones they sell, but in some cases, they will later unlock the phones free or for a small fee. On its site, iPhoneSimFree.com says it will start selling individual per-unit licenses for its unlocking software starting next week. The company will also accept inquiries for bulk purchases of 500 or more licenses. Hotz, who wrote that he is soon heading off to college, isn't offering to sell his technique but is auctioning on eBay what he claims is the world's second unlocked iPhone.
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Analyst agrees that a high number of unlocked phones would affect Apple profits, but isn't sure that's the point.