Seems there is a bit of confusion about our last post.
Q. Why do you say it is unlocked if you can't activate a non AT&T sim? — A. There is a difference between unlocking and activation.
Context & Ripple Effects
The clarification lands in the middle of a fast-moving unlock race: after July's DIY guide to running an iPhone without AT&T and the August 24 software unlock that broke AT&T's exclusivity (Engadget timed it to the minute), the free open-source iUnlock tool arrived September 11 and turned carrier independence into something any owner could attempt.
iPhoneSimFree's problem is definitional: customers who paid for an 'unlocked' phone discovered a non-AT&T SIM still will not activate the device, and the company is now arguing unlocking and activation are separate things. The same-day syndicated pickups — TUAW's '5 things you need to know' about the imminent 1.1.1 update, Engadget's 'facts and fiction,' and Gizmodo's re-review verdict of 'don't buy' — show buyer confidence in software unlocks is fraying from two directions at once.
First-order effects
- Buyers of third-party unlocks, especially anyone hoping to travel with a foreign SIM, learn the hard constraint immediately: 'unlocked' removes the carrier lock but does not let a non-AT&T SIM through activation, so the phone is only usable abroad once activated on AT&T terms.
- iPhoneSimFree must defend its product's value against the free iUnlock alternative while fielding complaints that its marketing oversold what 'unlocked' means.
Second-order effects
- Every unlock vendor now has to publish exactly which layer their software modifies — lock, activation, or both — because the free tools set a zero-price floor for anything less than full functionality.
- With Apple's 1.1.1 firmware circulating as the dominant question in the same-day coverage, buyers weighing any unlock against Gizmodo's 'don't buy' verdict are being pushed toward waiting rather than paying.
Third-order effects
- The unlock/activation split exposes that Apple controls a second gate beyond the carrier lock, meaning genuine out-of-box freedom depends on Apple's policy as much as on hacker tools — a structural tension between the device maker's exclusivity deal with AT&T and owners' expectations.
- If consumer confusion persists, the pattern feeds the case for formal rules or official processes defining when a purchased phone is truly unlocked, turning a hobbyist dispute into a policy question.
The trend: The iPhone unlock scene is shifting from proving a lock can be broken to negotiating layered restrictions — carrier locks versus Apple's activation gate — where vendor claims and firmware updates decide what owners actually get.