There’s a lot of hot air in the States about “unlocking” the iPhone. For me, and for everyone else in Europe, unlocking means getting the device to work with an operator other than AT&T.
However, the recent efforts are concerned with crippling the phone, by providing invalid data to the activation process so that you can use the music player and WiFi, but not GSM voice and data.
You’re essentially getting a $600 iPod Nano with WiFi and a touchscreen. Yawn. Wake me up when we get some real unlocking.
What this illustrates is the chasm between Apple’s image and AT&T’s. People are somehow convinced that AT&T subtracts value from the device, sullying the pureness of Apple’s vision. I think AT&T needs to think long and hard about how they got into this position, and what they can do to get out.
Update 2007-07-05: this article has a pretty good overview about what’s involved in unlocking the iPhone.