Read before you buy an iPhone
by Volker Weber
Update: This story is bogus. My apologies. If you look at this picture, you can see what appears to be a SIM tray.
The iPhone does not have a (replaceable) SIM.
Yes, that is right. It operates on GSM/EDGE networks, but unlike all other GSM phones, it does not have a replaceable SIM. So how do you use it? You buy it at the store, you take it home, you activate it via iTunes. So you paid $499 or $599 for the phone, you then pay a minimum of $60 per month, plus $36 activation. You are basically paying between $2000 and $6000 over two years, depending on your plan. If you decide to cancel that contract, you pay $175 cancellation fee. The phone then becomes useless until somebody else activates it.
It you take the phone out of the country you can still make phone calls, but only on an AT&T roaming plan. You cannot put your own SIM into the phone.
Now I am waiting for somebody to crack the device open and find the SIM inside. :-)
Good review by Walt Mosberg >
Comments
Well, I might be able to tell that you on Friday...
Nice. So what about the people on Windows XP or Vista 64-bit for which there is no iTunes? :-) Are they hosed?
I can hardly believe that a mobile phone without a SIM (and thus the ability to change the provider at least after the contract period) would be a sell in Europe. As I understand this is not unusual in the US. Strange enough.
If I buy a phone I don't want to get handcuffs instead.
Right, the iPhone will be a very expensive device. However part of the information is wrong. According to the "official specs", a SIIM tray is available. However, probably it will be useless to put a different SIM in, as some features might not work, like the visual mailbox.
Charles - 64 bit windows XP and Vista users are *used* to being hosed.
Buy a macbook and parallels instead.. ;-)
---* Bill
Charles, Vista is not supported as I understand. Neither 32 nor 64 bit.
Moritz, GSM phone must have a SIM. Which does not mean you have access to it. Walt Mosberg says you cannot replace it. I trust his judgement.
What happens if you crack it open, find a replaceable SIM and put your own in? That is the interesting question. SIM lock? Configurable APNs?
Volker, can you point me to the paragraph where he writes that the iPhone doesn't have a replaceable SIM card? He just says it won't work with SIM cards of other providers than AT&T. (Maybe it's too early for me today, but I really can't find that sentence in the article you've linked).
I stand corrected. Somehow I misread his statement.
there is one far more intersting point to me, that i discovered in the linked articel of walt mosberg who sasys at one point discussing email-functionality: "It can also handle corporate email using Microsoft's Exchange system, if your IT department cooperates by enabling a setting on the server."
to my knowledge this has not been postet anywhere else yet - so maybe thats one of the super-hot topics to be revealed in the last-minute? must be some kind of "mail4exchange" for iPhone functionality - i would be really pleased if that would we true...
l
@Lukas, "a setting on the server"? Superhot? IMAP? ;-)
I am not holding my breath. The setting could be "enable pop/imap access".
you are right guys - thats probably it. sad. imap with exchange is not an option here, so i did not take that into consideration.
I'm writing from the SOHO Apple store in NYC. Just saw the people camping to get an iPhone that have been on the TV news yesterday. The iPhone plans are one of Fox News' "Top 5 things to know" for today. The hype is incredible. Let's see if I'll manage to see the phone live Friday. Doubt it, though...
More info coming out tonight, of course. This support article shows how to remove the SIM, and the note at the end says:
iPhone is designed to work with most AT&T SIM cards. Other SIM cards may not work. For best results, use the SIM card included with iPhone.
The iPhone is not working with any other SIM card than the one you activated it for, we just tried it out (neither another US nor a German SIM card). :(
That is very wicked. You lock yourself in.
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