I plan to get an Apple iPhone and I'm happy to pay for the phone, but UK contracts seem expensive. I could buy an unlocked phone in the US, which should work with my existing contract, but are there reasons to avoid this? Robert Maitland
Two good reasons are that you may not get much, if any, support, and that Apple's software updates can "brick" an unlocked iPhone, rendering it useless. Since Apple is apparently getting a hefty slice of income from the network providers selling locked phones, it is not in its financial interest to play nice. There could be an interesting software war as Apple locks phones and geeks unlock them, but if you just want a phone to make calls, either pay for a contract or use a different phone. At least wait until after Macworld in January to see how things pan out.
