Apple Canada iPhone 4 Description Now Uses “Unlocked””

When the iPhone 4 launched in Canada, aside from being able to purchase the device on contract with a subsidy, Apple also released the availability of unlocked iPhones.

The unlocked iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, purchased for full price ($549/$659/$779) without a contract, provides users with the flexibility to use any wireless carrier they wish. However, in the case of the iPhone 4, so long as the carrier supports micro-SIM (but you could always cut a regular SIM).

When the unlocked devices hit the Apple Canada Online Store, many users were confused at Apple’s verbiage to describe the devices. Instead of simply saying “unlocked”, Apple chose to first say “SIM-free” which then eventually turned into “commitment-free”.

While commitment-free makes more sense than SIM-free, the verbiage can still be confusing, especially since “unlocked” is mostly universally understood and the majority of Apple Retail staff are simply saying “unlocked”.

On the back of this, today Apple has made a tiny change to its online store page for iPhone. In one section, instead of using commitment-free to describe an unlocked iPhone, Apple has simply used the word “unlocked”:

Before

Your new iPhone. Direct from Apple and commitment-free.

After

Your new iPhone. Direct from Apple and unlocked.

However, even with this small change, other areas of the store page still indicate “commitment-free”, so this could be the beginning of a larger, overall update.