Got my iPhone 4 today.I am in India and my cousin bought it for me on his visit from Thailand.Paradoxically I am working and staying in US for the past few years.Still i preferred not to buy it in US.Reason being US mobile market is highly screwed by the operators.My reasons to not buy from US were
1)Iphone bought in US is locked and CAN NEVER EVER BE OFFICIALY UNLOCKED, even after contract is over.
2)You have to always , ALL ITS LIFE USE IT WITH A DATA PLAN, even after contract is over.
In US you get a iPhone only thru AT&T. You have to take a 2yr contract.You can pay full amount and go without contract, but you still have to sign up for dataplan to be able to use.Even after contract is over , you can not go without data plan.So basically , officially , as long as you use iPhone, u pay for data plan.
You never get the unlock code to be able to use it with other operators, even after contract is over.If you move outside US , ie for eg India , you still dont get unlock code.They ask you to take service from operator tied up with apple in india , ie Airtel in this case.So your phone , for which you paid full contract , still you cant unlock it officially.
Also Tethering in not enabled in iPhones sold in US.
You can jailbreak your iphone and unlock it , but then with that you dont get software upgrades released by Apple and you have to depend on the cydia guys to provide the upgrade and you run the risk of their upgrade may miss features.
All this restrictions are not from Apple. Its the mobile operators in US. Outside US , like in Thailand, you get Iphone without contract , and officially unlocked and tethering enabled.
So for all this reasons , i didnt get my apple from the land of Apple.
But wherever you get it from , Apple is still Apple and I am relishing it.
