Is the iPhone really locked to Cingular?
So, I've had some time to reflect on the iPhone announcement yesterday and my gushing post on it. June seems really far away, but of course, I had to laugh at Ethan Kaplan's comment on the news that Zune will play games in July 2008. What will the iPhone do in comparison by that time?
RalphM points out in my comments that the iPhone is essentially a closed platform: call Apple if you want to build something on top. Ouch. I can understand, as they have to own making the device a vertically integrated experience that fits the "just works" category, and Google and Yahoo are major players that they wouldn't want displaced by some brilliant third party hack. Except, of course, that there *might be* brilliant third party hacks. This will happen over time, and Widgets seem the easiest way in. Lower level access will take much longer, which is a shame...
Dave Shea talked about new interaction models with the touchscreen, with which I have to agree, and then goes on to talk about the big issues: Cingular contracts and lockage aka how can we get it in Canada before it's "officially" here. Chuqui has a good deep dive on this and how the FCC fits in, too. Graham Fair covers this in my comments as well.
Apple could go two paths with this. What they've announced, is that the iPhone will be available in June only with a contract from Cingular. In the US, most people (not even most consumers -- most people in general) don't understand the whole locked phone / SIM card thing. I heard a comment in passing that it may have been actually illegal to try and unlock your own phone, that you own, because of DMCA issues.
OK, so the Apple bundle. Does it just come pre-installed with a Cingular SIM card, and "just works"? That's what I expect. I expect that Apple in fact will not allow locking of the iPhone at all: they're using a business contract to control the Cingular relationship, but haven't actually built anything into the OS that facilitates locking. That's path number one.
Path number two is that Apple does have locking built in, and we'll have to find a way to circumvent it, which would suck.
Remember, this is pure speculation, but if the iPhone doesn't have locking capabilities, it means we could buy one, pay for a Cingular plan, then take out the SIM card and replace it with a Canadian/European/whatever one, and it would "just work". Knock on wood.
Now, data. Dave Shea mentions "Somehow there has to be reconciliation between a bandwidth-hungry device like the iPhone promises to be, and the bandwidth-stingy mobile plans that many of us are stuck with". This is the case in Canada. Again, a few people are lucky enough to have a grandfathered plan that has unlimited data. But in the US, there are unlimited data plans that are really quite reasonable. And there's always WiFi...
Expect a horde of Canadians to be visiting in June....
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Unlockable
I think the fact that they highlighted a SIM card tray is telling; there's clearly intent to allow portability, which would have to indicate unlockability, or even just plain unlocked phones in the future.
I'd like to think the subsidized hardware is just one option, and they'll eventually sell full price unlocked phones, but this is Apple we're talking about. That confuses the message, and without heavy lifting from the carrier visual voicemail doesn't work, so I just don't see it happening.
re: the whole open vs. closed platform thing. One guy from Gartner says it's closed, but that doesn't mean he's right. Lack of mention of SDK doesn't indicate lack of existence. I'm waiting for official word from Apple on this one. It would be madness not to open the thing to developers, but it IS Apple, so who knows.
"a few people are lucky enough to have a grandfathered plan that has unlimited data"
Grr.
Locking
My uneducated bet is that the device will come locked to the Singular network. From their perspective this is probably more of a way to ensure QoS and to make sure the infrastructre they require to be in place for doing whatever cool things they want to do over the cell network works properly. This is sort of a bigger case of the "hey, I can't change my battery." Truth is that if your battery never needs to be changed, then you stop caring. So hopefully Singular will have great rates for iPhone people and nobody will care they're tied to it, assuming their number transfers over from wherever they are. That doesn't help the people with contracts already, but when th iPod came out it didn't help those who had a Creative Mp3 player sitting on the couch either. But, I hope they don't lock it.
And yes, my understanding of the DMCA would mean unlocking your phone, in the US, would be illegal.
Unlocking not illegal for next 3 years
It used to be a big issue in the US because it WAS illegal. Not anymore, according to recent exemptions.
I think that US-only the lock/unlock might be a non-issue. Does this mean a 2 year wait in Canada? Probably. Will people try and get it to work in Canada? Yes. In fact, for someone like me that travels to the US, having a Cingular plan wouldn't be a big deal...as long as I can put my Fido SIM in when I'm in Canada.
The only two features that need a network are "visual voicemail" and the special three way calling. Visual voicemail I could care less....I want it as an attachment in my email in any case.
Like I said...I can see Apple going two ways around this, and I suspect they will "look the other way" if people CAN get it working on other networks. Since they are supporting the phones directly (i.e. don't call Cingular, call Apple), I suspect they will just NOT support phones on other networks.