German court confirms iPhone exclusivity

German mobile operator T-Mobile is once again selling the Apple iPhone exclusively on its own network, after a Hamburg court overturned a ban recently won by rival Vodafone.

Shortly after T-Mobile launched the iPhone on November 9, Vodafone Germany won a temporary injunction, forcing the company to sell a version of the device without a lock to the network.

Vodafone claimed that German law prevented a carrier from selling a handset that could not be used on another network. T-Mobile promptly complied with the order and offered a SIM free version of the gadget for Eur999.

However, Vodafone’s victory was short lived as a Hamburg court overturned the ruling and allowed the Deutsche Telekom owned cellco to go ahead with its exclusive offer.

T-Mobile is reportedly considering filing a claim for damages depending on a review of sales in the wake of the injunction.

Apple encountered a similar situation in France and is likely to in other European countries, which have laws against mobile devices being tied to a certain carrier.

Meanwhile, one of the more prominent iPhone hacking groups, known as the the iPhone Dev Team, creators of the AnySIM software, is considering open sourcing its SIM unlock toolkit for the device. The thinking is that open sourcing the software will allow the hacker community to keep up with Apple’s attempts to keep the iPhone locked to partner networks.