The Evil is Spreading.

Apple’s crappy iPhone is spreading like the Borg and soon Germany will be assimilated. Pretty scary thought actually. T-Mobile is advertising that they are going to sell the iPhone in Germany starting November 9th. From the looks of things T-Mobile is not going to be giving much of a discount on the phone charging €399 for the 8GB version. Oh yeah and I think 399 Euros is much more than 475 Dollars … hmm let me do the calculation with the most recent dollar to euro conversion:

Current (as of the time of this posting) exchange rate is 1 Euro buys 1.4134 Dollars
so we calculate this as 399 Euros X 1.4134 and we get a wopping 564 Dollars. Wow you guys have it easy don’t you.

Now if T-Mobile is going to sell the phones locked then there might be a way to take them to court since they do not provide any assistance in the price. For example, I want a phone and a contract here in Germany, I go to my local T-Punkt (TeleKom’s service center). I choose a phone and pay a fraction of the price as long as I sign a contract to use T-Mobile for the next say two years or so. Great fine I get the phone I want cheaper because I’m actually going to pay for it over time via my contract. Because I’m in a contract with T-Mobile then they will lock my phone for at least the time of my contract. Ok no problem I’ve signed a contract with them anyway why not. Now the thing is I won’t buy a phone with a contract unless I get some discount on the phone. Why would I pay 399 Euros for a phone and then get stuck paying the fees to T-Mobile. If I’m going to buy a phone for 399 Euros I want to use what ever service there is out there.

I really wonder if this will work out for Apple or if they are going to get slammed by the German legal system. I’m hoping the Germans refuse the phone and its really legally gray contract system.

I know I’ll just stick with Nokia. No worries that they will lock up my phone with an update.

Time for iPhone Owners to take Apple to Court?

Well as of this report from the BBC, iPhone owners who have attempted to unlock their phone now have very expensive bricks. The question arises did the unlocking hack actually damage the software of the phone, or did Apple help it along? In either case people who use 3rd party software run this type of risk. The real legal question here is did Apple and AT&T conspire to force buyers to use only AT&T and is that exactly legal? I’m really thinking it is probably in the gray area of legal. I’m sure Apple says something along the lines “We can allow only AT&T provide essential service to our phone because we built it!” Well that would be like General Motors saying “We can allow only Exxon to sell fuel to our automobiles because we built them!” It’s a bunch of SHIT!

Now it doesn’t bother me any that people were:

1. Dumb for taking the chance with a really expensive piece of electronics
2. Dumb enough to buy an iPhone in the first fucking place.

I live in Germany where we don’t have iPhones. I’m sure that if Apple tries to sell the stupid thing here one of the first things that they are going to have to deal with is this “Only this carrier can provide service to our phone.” It’ll take about 48 hours for it to become an issue in European courts and Apple will probably lose.

For those of you who have just lost your iPhone to the upgrade I’ve got some advice for you. Get a different phone!