I believe the people need to continue discussing this, because I trully believe that apple and at&t are in it together, but both deny responsibility. Let me relay an absurd experience I just had:
I went to ATT store and asked if I can get the iPhone unlocked, the employee said no, but if I go to the apple store they will sell me an unlocked phone at the subsidized price! Excited, I called the store, an apple store employee on the phone said this is impossible, due to the sales process, BUT 4S IS a world phone and can be unlocked to be used in any country.
I then called ATT *611 number, there an employee told me that Apple phone can not be unlocked, but was very open about unlocking Android phones. He suggested a number of new LTE phones I could buy and unlock instantly! I then asked about iPhone again, and he suggested that he connect me to the apple support. He then transferred me to what seemed like the regular apple support numer.
Of course, I did not even hope about asking wether or not iPhone could be unlocked, so I just asked about buying an unlocked phone with the subsidized $199 price. He told me this is not possible, but with a rather 'straight face' told me that i can call AT&T and request to have my iPhone unlocked. That now, with 4S, this is possible, because and I quote '4s is a world phone' he then also referred me to the website.
At this point, my jaw dropping, I asked if he meant I could use it everywhere in the world with AT&T service, or if I could actually swap the sim card inside for one form another company. The man said I could put any carrier sim in the iPhone 4s, once again repeating the world phone motto. He then very clearly and matter of factly said that Apple provides all carriers with tools to unlock any iPhone 4s, but the option to do so is with the carrier and apple can not comment on any specific carriers policies. I asked if he had personally spoken or knows anyone who had an ATT iPhone 4s unlocked, he said many of his customers call from all over the world and are using unlocked ATT iPhone 4s. I asked him if he realizes what he is saying is contrary to everything everyone has ever believed in and he quite proudly stated that he just finished getting trained and that is the 'official' response.
So this is actually getting ugly! I mean if Apple is really training their employees to proudly wave in our faces that 4S is a world phone, and AT&T are the ******** of the world; I can actually agree with that. But I think apple is also acting like an ******* of the world by training their employees to tease poor iPhone customers with possibilities of things they know are not practically possible, at the expense of their now rival and new goliath AT&T, a monster they helped create a grow. Booo! I say to all sides, I am going to get TMobile and Android phone.
