We all know by now that T-Mobile Germany has been forced to offer carrier-unlocked iPhones to its customers. But, until now, we had no idea how Apple and T-Mobile would go about unlocking those 999 Euro (about $1,500 USD) iPhones. Well, thanks to well-heeled iPhone hopefuls with the bankroll and desire to own an iPhone that can work on any GSM network in the world, we now know just how Apple will go about unlocking said iPhones.
It seems that Apple’s own iTunes activation-setup has been modified to unlock those premium iPhones upon approval from Cupertino. Anyone looking to purchase an uber-expensive, unlocked iPhone from T-Mobile Germany will be given a run-of-the-mill, locked iPhone. The IMEI number is sent to Apple for remote-unlocking approval. Within 24 hours, Apple will send the unlocked iPhone owner an email confirming their unlocked status. Then, a simple iTunes-sync will result in a SIM-unlocked iPhone with the v1.1.2 firmware.
Pretty simple, eh? We think so too. And, with an Apple-sanctioned unlock method for the iPhone (one that doesn’t risk bricking your iPhone with every firmware update), we figure the iPhone Dev Team is hard at work trying to reverse-engineer the Apple unlock process. If Apple was fool-hardy enough to hide some iPhone-unlocking code into iTunes, the iPhone community could have an official, non-bricking iPhone unlock solution in the near future. We’ll be keeping our ears to the ground on this one, folks.
[Via: MacRumors]