The first hands-on reports are coming in from buyers of the iPhone in Germany who have splashed out the full €999 asking-price for an unlocked handset.  It turns out to be a typically Apple-streamlined process [translated], although if you were hoping to buy the phone and then flaunt it with an alternative SIM straight away you’ll be disappointed.

Pay the €600 premium and you receive a normal, locked iPhone; its IMEI (the unique handset number) is recorded, together with your name, and sent to Apple.  Wait around 24hrs, plug the handset into your computer and iTunes unlocks the phone “in seconds”.  The firmware is left at version 1.1.2 and there doesn’t seem to be any reported feature loss (aside from Visual Voicemail, which is of course network dependent).

Many are talking now about the possibility of forcing an unofficial unlock during that iTunes IMEI check/registration stage.

[via SlashGear]