Australian iPhone Unlocking

So many people keep on asking, "how do i unlock my iPhone 3G?", "can i import an iPhone from America and use it in Australia?", "can i get an iPhone for free?" and "when will the price of Australian iPhone come down?".

The Australian iPhone 3G is a rip-off and there is no doubt about it. For a basic phone that just works well (like all other phones should) this phone should be $300 in Australia but because of Apple and Australian Telecommunication companies the price is more than double that, and as for the data prices well that is a rip-off too!

I understand why people want the iPhone cheaper and keep asking these questions to try and get it cheaper; but unfortunately they are pretty much wasting their time. Apple has spent a lot of money making sure the iPhone 3G programming cannot be completely manipulated by hackers (although hacking can still do some stuff to the iPhone 3G) and so unlocking is almost impossible.

Apple has also set up sales of the iPhone to work in their favour, by making all iPhone 3G's in America (the cheapest place in the world to get the iPhone) locked to one network, which prevents people just shipping from America to Australia, for example.

There is no way to get a "cheap" or "free" iPhone-unfortunately at the moment you have to put up with the current plan/prepaid iPhone pricing which is just way too expensive for most people.

I must also warn people not to even bother clicking on ads/sites for "free iPhone 3G's" because i guarantee it is either a scam or it makes you pay for the iPhone in some way (e.g. through buying hundreds of products and earning "points" towards an iPhone, like i saw a site for earlier today).

Sorry for all of this bad news but i feel that i must tell people the truth about the iPhone situation.

To finish on a positive note:

I expect (as of 22/9/08) that the iPhone 3G should be 20% cheaper in Australia by christmas and around half the price (if not less) by the end of next year when the new iPhone model (iPhone 4G??!) should be available.

Should you wait to buy the iPhone 3G? Yes!

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Till next Australian iPhone 3G post, Lachlan.