Apple iPhone in Malaysia

In recent times, I have got several people asking me about the viability of getting an unlocked Apple iPhone in Malaysia.

For the uninitiated, we shall quickly go through the basic facts first. At this point in time, the iPhone is only available officially from Apple either in the United States with a plan from Cingular/AT&T, in the United Kingdom with a plan from O2, in Spain with a plan from Telefonica, in Germany with a plan from T-Mobile, and most recently in France from Orange.

In other words, the iPhones which are on sale officially from Apple are locked to these mobile operators, as Apple requires these operators to enter into a revenue sharing agreement, with Apple not being content with just selling a device, and wanting a piece of the telco pie.

The natural consequence to this marketing strategy has been a cat and mouse game between various groups of mobile phone hackers/enthusiasts around the world and Apple; with the former releasing software to ‘unlock’ these iPhones to enable them to be used with practically any sim card. As can be expected, Apple has been ferociously fighting attempts to unlock its iPhone to protect its revenue sharing model and exclusivity agreements with mobile operators.

Besides issuing warnings, Apple has also released a couple of firmware updates to the iPhone which will automatically revert the device back to its ‘locked’ state, and can render the device inoperable in certain circumstances. Since the firmware updates are installed automatically through the iTunes software interface, users with unlocked iPhones need to be extra vigilant to ensure that they do not inadvertently allow the update(s) to take place.

In Malaysia, many people have been using the iPhone for a while now, and have learnt to overlook some of the issues with the device, which have stemmed either from the device’s lack of maturity or from the unlocking process itself. One of the biggest gripes is that Maxis users have been unable to receive incoming calls to their iPhones, due to a technical incompatibility with the iPhone and Maxis’s network. However, Maxis has taken heed of its users’ complaints and has managed to resolve this issue in certain areas around the country. There are other issues as well, ranging from intermittent reception problems to occassional undelivered text messages.

So the question is, is it worth getting an unlocked iPhone in Malaysia now or to wait for an official launch sometime this year?

A parallel can be drawn with the pirated DVDs we Malaysians often see being sold just days after a movie is released, and sometimes even before an official release. More often than not such movies are just recorded off private screenings and do not do justice to the movie itself. However, there are still people who still buy these movies, despite the poor quality, just to be able to be among the first to have watched the movie.

So, if you just can’t wait and need to be among the first to use the device, and are willing to overlook many features which may not work as intended, then there are plenty of online merchants and stores from which you can source an iPhone locally in Malaysia. Otherwise, my bet would be to rather wait for its official release, so that I am able to fully enjoy the device, and every feature in it as intended by the manufacturer.