Germany's T-Mobile may have lost its case in court, but it looks as though it has found a way of telling the judge, and the justice system, to get stuffed. According to Reuters:
T-Mobile said on Wednesday it will offer the iPhone without a T-Mobile contract for 999 euros ($1,478) at its shops.
Yeah, like it costs 600 euros just to unlock an iPhone.
T-Mobile's standard charge for an iPhone is €1,176, made up of €399 for the iPhone plus the minimum cost of a two-year contract. €1,176 is currently $1,724 or £840.
It could be interesting if this gets challenged, because it might expose the financial background. We know that, as part of the lock-in deal, Apple collects a swingeing monthly tax for each iPhone user. Does T-Mobile still have to pay Apple the tax if users don't have a contract? How dumb -- or how desperate -- would you have to be to sign that sort of deal?
