Astronomically expensive unlocked German iPhone raises questions of future features

Thanks to Vodafone's injunction, T-Mobile Germany currently has to sell Apple's iPhone without a contract, and unlocked, if requested. Such a phone goes for the extraordinary price of €999.

According to MacNotes.de, to unlock an ordinary iPhone, you pay the additional "surcharge" at the store, the iPhone's IMEI number is recorded and sent to Apple, and then 24 hours later you log on to iTunes to complete the process.

You now have a firmware 1.1.2 iPhone which can be used with any SIM card. However, presumably even if you continue to use the T-Mobile network in Germany, you won't have access to Visual Voicemail, and possibly to YouTube. You'll then have to pay whatever data rates apply in order to access the Web.

It begs the question as to whether it's worth it? Presumably, if you're not so interested in the phone functionality of the iPhone, you could simply buy an iPhone Touch, use Wi-Fi access, and get all the iPod functionality.

Unless of course you really don't like T-Mobile and are prepared to pay extortionate prices to avoid their contract.

Will iTunes continue to provide software/feature upgrades for an unlocked iPhone? What about security patches? And expect someone to come along and provide free unlocking of German iPhones.

(Via Mac Rumors)

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