iPhone price cut generates 200% sales increase

Marketing students of the future will certainly study the iPhone case: A brand with a fanatical crowd of followers sells a gsm phone at a sick price and then cuts off 33% to make it sound like a bargain while keeping high profit margins for such an obsolete technology. iHype at its best.

I am one of the people striving to get an iPhone outside the US.
Purchasing one will probably not be a problem at all. My question however is: is there an internet site with a "for dummies"-like explanation about ALL the steps, files and stuff to unlock an iPhone?

I'd love to have one, but before having someone purchasing it for me I really would like to have a clear overview of all the things I will have to do to unlock it. Up to know I found lots of posts stating it can be done, but none with a lean and clear explanation of what and how it needs to be done. From "activation" without AT&T onwards...

I will not be in the category of "lost AT&T customers" anyway, so ethically I don't have any problems...

@NICK A > "Well I don't know about the price, but I just bought one due to the freely available unlock."

Are you in the US?

Interesting. Overseas, people who I've shown my iPhone to have started going nuts when I tell them it's now pretty easy for them to get their own.

You can see their eyes move into logistics planning mode...!

"How safe is eBay?" "Do I have a friend in the US?" "When's my next business trip?" "Maybe I'll route my holiday stopover through Hawaii..."

I wouldn't be surprised at all if a certain proportion of the sales spike is due to international imports, whether eBay'ers buying them up to on-sell or otherwise.

The iPhone Dev team & co have actually done a great service to Apple in spreading the unlock, despite possible misgivings from Apple (or its misguided fanboys).

The great thing about the Piper Jaffray piece is how they don't see the announcement as proving their estimates wrong, but instead assume a sudden, massive increase to make up the shortfall.

Which would you think is most likely?

Several people on a plane I was just on had an iPhone. This was before the price drop, though.

Well I don't know about the price, but I just bought one due to the freely available unlock. $600 was a lot, but I would have paid it straight away if Apple left it unlocked. Now I can have it my way and cheaper.

It's still going to be another $175 to get out of my contract with Sprint... so...
I'll be waiting for January, and then at that point, I might as well wait for iPhone 2.0

This is why you both love and loathe Apple. The products are great, but you hate them because they empty your wallet every keynote, because of that.... I have a tough decision, iPod Touch or iPhone...hmmmm

and somehow they are still selling for $500+ on ebay and one which claims it is new and somehow unlocked for "any carrier" is going for $925 with over half an hour left...some people

Hmm... Suddenly the iPhone is much more attractive...