Yesterday Apple announced some major news for people in Canada, the UK, and France–the iPhone 4 will be sold unlocked when you buy it outright. What’s so significant about this?
Benefits of Purchasing an Unlocked iPhone and Going Contract-Free
For starters, when you travel you’ll be able to pop in a SIM card from your travel destination and talk for dirt cheap, at a fraction of what it would cost to roam internationally. Have you seen what Rogers, Telus, and Bell charge when you’re overseas or out of the country? Just call them and ask.
Also, a factory unlocked iPhone will retain a higher resale value versus a phone locked to a specific carrier. So when it comes time to upgrade to the iPhone 5 (or whatever it will be called), just put your phone up on eBay and you’ll make top dollar. Don’t believe me? Just check eBay listing for factory unlocked iPhones originating from Hong Kong or Italy. There’s a massive, thriving aftermarket for your factory unlocked phone.
Another benefit is you get to avoid re-signing the dreaded 3 year contracts from Rogers, Telus, and Bell. Sure, you won’t get the subsidized pricing up front, but the freedom of not being tied down is priceless.
If the ‘Big 3’ decide to make changes to your plan while you’re on contract, you will have no choice but to accept them. But when you’re contract free with an unlocked iPhone–you will be able to jump to whatever carrier/plan you wish–without paying a penalty (assuming you’re on a month to month plan, and not on contract). Need to move suddenly out of the country?–no problem! No cancellation fees here, folks! 🙂
Unlocked iPhone 4 Price Predictions for Canada
We haven’t heard what the outright unlocked prices will be for Canadians. To put unlocked prices in perspective, let’s take a look at what people are paying in France and the UK (prices reflect their VAT?) before we make our educated guess:
France:
16GB iPhone 4: 629 € = $795 CDN
32GB iPhone 4: 739 € = $934 CDN
UK:
16GB iPhone 4: £499 = $758 CDN
32GB iPhone 4: £599 = $910 CDN
Unlocked iPhone 4 pricing in Canada:
How did we come up with this? We analyzed the historical prices of iPhones in Canada (our prediction for iPad pricing in Canada was pretty much spot on).
2009 prices of outright iPhones in Canada:
8GB iPhone 3G: $599
16GB iPhone 3GS: $699
32GB iPhone 3GS: $799
2010 prices of outright iPhones in Canada:
8GB iPhone 3GS: $549 (-$50 price drop)…this latest price drop should also apply to the new iPhone 4 leaving us with the following outright, unlocked prices:
So really, in 2010 we will be paying $50 less for an outright iPhone from Apple–but this time around, the darn things are factory unlocked! Now that’s what you call ‘the cherry on top’. All we need now is the iPhone 4’s date of arrival in Canada. Here’s to crossing our fingers for July 23rd/30th (or earlier!) and no delays like down South!
