Apple has announced the launch of unlocked iPhone 4 in 17 countries by the end of this week. The 17 lucky countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. With this, people will now be free to choose their own network providers.

Currently iPhone 4 is sold only in US if you are ready to have AT&T as your carrier for 2 years. But this will not be the case for the 17 countries. Apple will sell iPhone 4 in these countries via Bell and Telus, Rogers and its own outlets. Pricing (approximate) will be as following;

•    iPhone 4 16GB – CAD 659 – Rs 29,899
•    iPhone 4 32GB – CAD 779 – Rs 35,299
•    iPhone 3GS 8GB – CAD 549 – Rs 24,899

All the above models will be sold as unlocked versions. In India, iPhone 4 will be available via Airtel/Vodafone by September/August at an approximate rate of Rs 43,000. So if you have friends/family in any of the 17 countries, order your iPhone right away as it will be a cheaper and unlocked version.