As some of my eagle-eyed readers may have noticed, one of the iPhone links from my previous blog entry showed an “unlocked” iPhone on sale. Yes, you can get a legally unlocked iPhone, but at a price. These are not cheap though, ranging from almost $900 to over $1000.

So what is the difference? In some countries, Apple is forced by law to make an unlocked iPhone available to customers who ask for one. This “unlocking” does not involve Jailbreaking, and is most likely a very closely guarded where the actual “locking” mechanism is permanently disabled or undone. An iPhone unlocked in this way would not be affected by firmware updates (although this has happened).

A large number of cellphones and smartphones are available in unlocked versions. Most of the Palm GSM smartphones are available in unlocked form, which is several times more expensive than the locked phone which is subsidized by a mobile network operator.