Steve Jobs told me the iPads sold in Japan will NOT be SIM locked!

Seriously. I sent email to Steve Jobs as follows:

On May 12, 2010, at 2:50 AM, Doug Lerner <doug@lerner.net> wrote:

Hi. In the U.S. iPad 3Gs are cool. They are SIM-unlocked, which is great. And the unlimited no-committment AT&T contracts are convenient.

But in Japan we won't have the option to buy an internationally usable iPad 3G. SoftBank has been given exclusive rights to sell the iPhone 3G, and the unlimited data option at about $35/month requires committing to a 2-year contract. There aren't any no-commitment unlimited contracts like the $30 AT&T plan.

And what's worse, unlike the U.S. version, the iPad 3G sold will be SIM-locked! So we can't get an AT&T microSIM to use during travel in the U.S.!

The reverse is also true. If you are coming from the U.S. to Japan, you can't get a microSIM card from SoftBank to use your iPad 3G here.

The iPad 3G could be such a cool, internationally usable device. Why isn't Apple letting it be open in Japan like it is in the U.S.?

Sincerely,

Doug Lerner,

Tokyo

And he just sent me this one line reply:

Actually, the version of iPad sold in Japan does accept international SIMs.

If Jobs is correct, maybe there is hope for DoCoMo and others to make competing microSIMs and we can also use Japanese iPad 3Gs in the U.S.

doug

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Papadimitriou on May 13, 2010 at 12:00am

Holy... please get in touch with me ;-) paul@mobileinjapan.com

Permalink Reply by Doug Lerner on May 13, 2010 at 12:11am

I sent Jobs back the following email in reply, but he hasn't answered yet.

--- reply sent to Steve Jobs' answer to my email ---

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond. I will tell that to my friends.

SoftBank is saying the Japan iPads are SIM-locked and will not work with anything but SoftBank microSIM cards. I suspect even if I say, "Well, Steve Jobs told me something different" they will not change their story. :)

I suppose business travelers from the U.S. are out of luck using their U.S. iPad 3G in Japan in any case.

Yours,

Doug Lerner,
Tokyo

p.s. The joke in the Mac community in Japan is that Masayoshi Son kidnapped your dog and is holding it hostage.

Permalink Reply by ketahi on May 13, 2010 at 12:16am

Way to go Doug- it's like you pulled a golden ticket!

Internet fame awaits!

Permalink Reply by Doug Lerner on May 13, 2010 at 12:32am

How many of my 15 minutes does this use up? :)

doug

Permalink Reply by Kurt on May 13, 2010 at 9:43am

I bet you could extend your 15 minutes by adding this signature to your next email to Jobs:

"Sent from my jailbroken iPhone"

;)

Permalink Reply by Paul Papadimitriou on May 13, 2010 at 1:09am

Here you go, you're featured on the main site with so more contradictions from Apple Japan:

http://mobileinjapan.com/2010/05/13/steve-jobs-says-ipad-in-japan-n...

Permalink Reply by Doug Lerner on May 13, 2010 at 1:18am

Looks nice. Wouldn't it be nice if Jobs thought it was supposed to be the way he said and SoftBank is giving him the run-around and Jobs ends up laying down the law to Son?

doug

Permalink Reply by ketahi on May 13, 2010 at 7:17am

This is big. Very big. As far as I know, Steve with all of his terse replies has never openly contradicted known facts, or, for that matter been mistaken.

Any way you slice it, somebody made a huge mistake.

If you can, you might want to submit a screenshot of the email with all headers displayed (and your personal emal addressed blacked out) for verification. Hopefully the big tech blogs will pick up on this, and that seems to be their test for verification.

Permalink Reply by Doug Lerner on May 13, 2010 at 7:58am

I sent a screenshot to Paul already. If anybody needs one with headers I can do that too.

doug

Permalink Reply by Mehdi El Fassy Fihry on May 13, 2010 at 11:39am

I just saw your story on macrumors.com !!! Very impressive. I was all "I know this guy, I know this guy!!!" lol
Anyway, I can't wait to see how this story is going to end. Will Softbank accept to sell unlocked 3G iPads? And how about this year's rumored new iPhone??
As far as I am concerned, I already bought my wifi only iPad from the US, and enjoying it a lot. I am also thinking about jailbreaking my iPhone and installing MyWi like Doug suggested in another thread, it will be cheaper than buying a Pocket WiFi.

Permalink Reply by Doug Lerner on May 13, 2010 at 11:47am

I'm on macrumors.com? I need to check it out! :)

doug

Permalink Reply by Mehdi El Fassy Fihry on May 13, 2010 at 11:55am

Oops I was supposed to type "Twitter" ! I saw that on Twitter, not macrumors lol! But hey, I am sure if we send them an email, they'll put it on their site too! Sorry for the little mistake :)

‹ Previous
1
2
3
…
5
Next ›