Apple should limit the activation of the iPhone only to the phone functions. That way they can market and sell the device as their top of the line touch pod. Only when an owner wants to start using the phone functions it's time to activate the iPhone for that purpose. In this scenario, Apple will only sell more iPhones and AT&T doesn't loose nothing. And it can't be so hard to implement in a future firmware release.

I really don't understand why Apple has completely 'locked' the new iPhones for all functions so far... What do you think?

That's a good idea. The iPod Touch is close to the new price of the iPhone, so if they just had the phone with 8gig and 16gig capacity, you'd have an iPod Touch if you didn't activate/use the phone.

That's how I use a Blackberry at work. We use text and organizer functionality, but don't have voice plans 'cause we have phones at our desks.

No, Apple should do what ALL phone manufacturers worldwide did for the past decade to avoid p*ss*ng off potential customers: they should offer a subsidised iPhone for let's say 399 USD and a "free" one (unlocked) for 599 USD. Good for them, somehow good for us. Using this method, Apple would have sold TWICE the amount of iPhones but apparently they didn't trust their own product, so they went for a more "secure" (from a revenue point of view) and restricted way to keep up the hype and to earn some extra cash from AT&T and other carriers later on.

I bet that if Apple would have realized how many iPhones they would sell to NON-AT&T customers, they would have chosen a different strategy. Personally I think that Steve Jobs should fire the guy(s) responsible for this marketing stunt because in the end, Apple has and will loose a lot of reputation in their "fight" against "evil" Microsoft. Apple always had some sort of "rebel" in them, at least customers had the feeling that they buy something out of the ordinary, something special, something "good" and something anti-Microsoft. Well...they were wrong, Apple is becoming more and more a second Microsoft, even worse because at least Microsoft doesn't lock their mouses and joysticks, so they would run with Microsoft games only.

Sooner or later, Apple has to re-think their iPhone strategy because right now, it stirred up too many emotions and not necessarily in a positive way.

Originally Posted by Don_Ron

Apple should limit the activation of the iPhone only to the phone functions. That way they can market and sell the device as their top of the line touch pod. Only when an owner wants to start using the phone functions it's time to activate the iPhone for that purpose. In this scenario, Apple will only sell more iPhones and AT&T doesn't loose nothing. And it can't be so hard to implement in a future firmware release.

I really don't understand why Apple has completely 'locked' the new iPhones for all functions so far... What do you think?

Don_Ron, that's a thought and a good one. However, there IS a major difference between the Touch and the iPhone despite their very similar look and feel. The difference is that there's a telephone in the iPhone and no telephone in the Touch. Think of the temptation of activating that telephone if you had already managed to get to first base without doing anything at all? I think (I'm sure) that's why Apple will never do this and I think that's why they came up with the Touch -- to satisfy those of us who said they wanted an iPhone without the phone.

With FW 1.1.1, Apple has done exactly what I thought they would do -- they have made getting to 1st base (activation) the hardest of all. As for what awaits us after we get there is hard to anticipate right now, but the rule of hacking is that if you can get past the first line of defense, it's just a matter of time until you can get to the second, third and finally, home run (the unlock)! What you're suggesting, however, is that Apple sacrifices 1st base and they won't do this, since I think that this is probably going to be the hardest base to get to.

Originally Posted by Don_Ron

Apple should limit the activation of the iPhone only to the phone functions. That way they can market and sell the device as their top of the line touch pod. Only when an owner wants to start using the phone functions it's time to activate the iPhone for that purpose. In this scenario, Apple will only sell more iPhones and AT&T doesn't loose nothing. And it can't be so hard to implement in a future firmware release.

I really don't understand why Apple has completely 'locked' the new iPhones for all functions so far... What do you think?

Personally I think the whole activating process is kind of ridiculeous, when most GSM phones do not need this process. It just adds one more step to the whole process.

Originally Posted by 997TT

No, Apple should do what ALL phone manufacturers worldwide did for the past decade to avoid p*ss*ng off potential customers: they should offer a subsidised iPhone for let's say 399 USD and a "free" one (unlocked) for 599 USD.

This topic has been beaten to death but I will weigh in nonetheless. Apple can't sell an unlocked iPhone that runs on any GSM carrier for a variety of reasons. First of all. If Apple did that, they will have to test the iPhone with every single carrier out there. Nokia does that btw. 2nd, some of the iPhone features are heavily dependent on the operator (read: visual voice mail).

Can you imagine if the avg Joe went out and bought an iPhone. Placed in his iPhone the SIM card then discovered that the phone can't do visual voice mail nor EDGE...etc. This would be a customer service nightmare, and it is certainly not Apple's way of doing things.

I am not advocating locking handsets for sure, but I can somehow see why a company like Apple might want to lock it to specific carriers.