The iPhone 4S is now available from four U.S. carriers—
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and C Spire—but if you'd rather not be saddled with a two-year contract from these providers, Apple today officially started selling an unlocked version of the device on its Web site.Freedom from contracts won't come cheap, though. A 16GB unlocked iPhone 4S will be $649, a 32GB version will be $749, and a 64GB device will set you back $849.
The black and white versions are available, and Apple's Web site currently says they will ship within one to two weeks.
"The unlocked iPhone works only on supported GSM networks, such as AT&T in the U.S. When you travel internationally, you can also use a micro-SIM card from a local GSM carrier. The unlocked iPhone will not work with CDMA carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint," Apple said
Apple started taking pre-orders for the unlocked iPhone 4S in October, but said at the time that they would ship at some point in November.
Apple started selling an unlocked version of its iPhone 4 in June, starting at $649.
Why so pricey? Users who sign up for a two-year contract with a provider get an iPhone for a subsidized price ($199, $299, or $399) because your carrier will recoup the cost of the device via your monthly charges; hence the hefty early termination fees. But if you opt-out of that deal, you say goodbye to cheaper prices.
The unlocked phones make their debut the same day that the iPhone 4S hits stores in Hong Kong and 15 other countries, on November 11. A recent analyst report found that the device sold out within 10 minutes after Apple made it available for pre-order in Hong Kong."This morning, TechNode, a China tech news site, reported that the iPhone 4S sold out in just three hours at the new Apple store in Hong Kong," Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White wrote in an investor note this morning. "Our own checks this morning also indicate that the Apple authorized resellers in Hong Kong also sold out early in the day, despite the fact that the most important new feature, Siri, does not speak Mandarin."
When the iPhone 4S debuted, Apple's first global smartphone, there was a bit of confusion among the contract crowd as to whether users could physically switch out the iPhone 4S's micro-SIM card as you can with other global phones like the BlackBerry Bold and Motorola Photon 4G. SprintFeed, however, is now reporting that starting today, Sprint will lock the SIM slot on the iPhone 4S.
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