We're as good as our word. Goodbye!
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Apple breaks a key Ipad promise
SMARTPHONE COMPANY Apple has already broken a promise to international users that no IPad devices would be locked to any carrier.
IDG News reports Apple has confirmed that all Japanese Ipad models will be SIM locked.
The announcement hasn't been taken well, not just because Apple has done a U-turn but also because some users aren't keen on using the network of Softbank Mobile to which the devices will be locked. There will not be any other Ipads offered in Japan that can be used with the other Japanese network carriers.
It also won't be as easy to unlock IPads in Japan as can be done elsewhere, as in Japan network operators don't offer the service and other unlocking services aren't that easy to find.
Usually with mobile phones, carriers say that locking helps keep the prices of the phones affordable, but since the Ipad is not subsidised this excuse doesn't work and it looks to be simply a way to keep the tablet away from rival networks.
Apple has not yet replied to a request from the Inquirer for comment about how it can justify breaking a key promise that it made at the Ipad launch. µ
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The promise is not a contract, it depend the location and different business culture.
more iPad news on
http://www.ipodandiphone.net/news/index.php?category=iPad-News
in response to the poster that mentioned the family plan with docomo, Softbank offers the same service. free calls between family members, 24/7 for up to 10 lines if my memory serves me right. i've been using for years already.
if I was a docomo user,the only thing that would keep me from switching to Softbank for the iphone/ipad would be the weaker signal.
I must say that idea is brilliant, I am waiting with baited breath for the first YouTube videos that will confirm this trend.
That said, I do not recall any mention of Apple promising not to lock anything down. They do have a track record against that kind of promise, though.
In the end, it doesn't really matter, does it ? The fanbois will buy the stupid lump of non-ecological toxic matter anyway, and the normal people will go and buy something less expensive and more useful, as usual.
I am amazed that no one seems to have noticed the amazing similarity between the Apple iPad and a discus.
The iPad is a few grams lighter than a woman's discuss, but I am sure the Japanese track and field teams could use the many unwanted iPads exported to Japan (due to this latest draconian move by Apple) for training purposes. This could even catch on world-wide, and might help support some form of continued iPad sales once better and more capable devices from other manufacturers take over the market.
I will look forward to seeing one of these aerodynamic "silver bullet-babies" streaking across the sky in a (flash-based) Youtube video.
I guess one could even have the iPad displaying a picture of something that one wanted to toss (such as Steve Job's head photoshopped onto a Pixar dwarf's body, or whatever one wanted). The accelerometer would probably do interesting things to the picture in flight. The iPad's (too) powerful wireless broadcasts would make iDiscuses easy to track with great accuracy (until they landed...).
I can't see the iPad being something you could use in the Tokyo rush hour anyway. There's just not room for something that big. My brother made do for many years over there with a Psion 5 and a mobile phone. Email, bit of word processing, bit of spreadsheeting, all in a pocket so really good in the Tokyo rush hour. Still nothing quite like it on the market.
I didn't see that many iPhones out there last week. I did see a large number of Nintendo DSes and indigenous designs of mobile phones.
Actually, this sounds like a fantastic idea.
This way, the millions of Japanese customers who would have bought an iPad to use on their current network will instead buy one of the other brands of tablets, or perhaps a netbook instead.
Just a brilliant marketing strategy by Apple, making sure that people who want to simply buy and easily use it's products can't do so, driving them to better featured and less expensive options they can use without changing their carrier or their data plan.
If only all companies were this nice about directing potential customers away from their overpriced products and over to the competition, the world would be a nicer place.
I've been waiting for two years for the iphone to come to the docomo network, with the ipad softbank deal, it doesn't look likely. I give up.
Switching carriers is not an option for me as I'm on the docomo family plan, so free calls 24/7 between family members. The call rates are just too expensive between carriers.
What a shame.
My only hope of now is .0001% for the potential sim lock removal by government legislation and I can legally use an iphone on docomo.
Inquirer: please also ask why iphone isnt on docomo.
"Apple has not yet replied to a request from the Inquirer for comment about how it can justify breaking a key promise that it made at the Ipad launch."
Could you please source this 'promise' from Apple? This article is the first I'd heard of it and I'd hate to miss out.
Cheers!
-- Tim
Take a look at the plans:
Unlimited - if you sign a two year contract - for US$35 a month
or
1GB Prepaid - US$50
Sounds like Softbank are playing the part of AT&T and are paying off Apple for exclusive rights to the iPad. NTT Docomo has stated publically that their network will support the iPad and that they have the new SIM cards - sounded like they were ready to throw down the gauntlet and fight Softbank (who have exclusive iPhone rights at the moment). We would have seen the first case of open competition for an unlocked cellular device in Japan, but instead we have unusually high prices - even more so for Japan!
A friend of mine in Canada just bought a new Apple MacBook. He got a great price by buying it online from Japan.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is locking Japan bound iPads to prevent them from boomeranging.