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Sent From My iPhone.

No, not really. But I did manage to finally get one. Finally, because it did take almost 8 weeks for me to get the black 32GB iPhone 3GS. That's Belgium for you. When I went to get mine the person behind the counter told me that Mobistar (the exclusive distributor here in Belgium) had sent them 16 pieces that week. That is 16 iPhones to divide over their 7 stores in Flanders, Belgium. Unbelievable how big of a scam the iPhone is in Belgium.

There are two reasons I can think of why this would be.

The first is that Apple makes more money over a 2 year period of time on iPhones sold with a subscription than on those sold unlocked. But several people that are in the distribution chain told me this wasn't the case as a cellphone operator just buys them from Apple at a certain price and then has to figure out itself how to gain back the money through a subscription model via their customers. If Apple makes more money on phones sold with a plan it might be reluctant to ship unlocked "cheap" iPhones to Belgium and saves its production for our neighbouring countries.

Second one is that subsidising phones wasn't, and still isn't allowed in Belgium, although Europe won't fine operators anymore if they do it and soon the law will change for Belgium as well stating that subsidising phones is legal. Mobistar, in my opinion is waiting to sell iPhones as long as possible until this coupling is allowed and then sell subsidised iPhones with subscriptions, on which they obviously make way more money than selling phones without a plan. For all I know they might be sitting on a stockpile of phones only letting out a couple at a time covering it up with "limited availability" on Apple's part.