Buy.com has begun listing a factory unlocked 16GB Apple iPhone 3G for sale at the princely sum of $799.99 with a 30-day warranty.
If correct, this would be the first official listing of a recently unavailable purchasing option, as AT&T and Apple have sold all iPhone hardware, which meant that even paying the $599/$699 price tag for an iPhone without contract meant that the device itself would still be locked to AT&T.
Random searching under the listed part number for the device yielded little in the way of concrete proof that this model is indeed unlocked, as speculation points to the model being offered as being European in origin, since many European countries bar handset locking and carrier exclusivity.
Buy.com has clarified that the 30 day warranty is Buy.com’s return period. The device carries a full one-year warranty from Apple, in addition to the Buy.com return warranty. It is also elegible for the AppleCare Protection Plan.
However, the phone is now out of stock on Buy.com’s web site. It’s not clear if Apple demanded the removal (since this was likely a gray market item), or if they simply sold out. It does rank as 102 on their sales ranks, indicating that it did sell out.
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I don’t think they were every approved by Apple at all. When I went to my AT&T corporate guy, he said that the only company that he knows that actually sells unlocked iPhones for world travelers / international corporate customers is a company named American Wireless. All this time he has never mentioned buy.com or has heard of any corporation buying from buy.com before.
I want to buy the iphone 3g without contract to my country.
I really want to use it.