A discussion thread in Apple Discussion forum unfolds a sad story for unlocked iPhone users. Upgrading to firmware 2.2 is creating problems even for officially unlocked iPhone owners. In some cases, select features such as SMS and calls are disabled and in the worst case, devices are getting re-locked or bricked.

Apple Store executives are not aware of the problem and reportedly provide no ready solution when users visit the stores. Officially unlocked iPhones purchased in Hong Kong, Australia, Belgium, Italy are among those affected by this strange update mess. Is 2.2 iPhone firmware incomplete? There is another angle about this whole story.

Victor, on his recent visit to Hong Kong came back with a new officially unlocked 8 GB iPhone (He hates AT&T and also does not bank on the iPhone Dev team) so he found the supposedly better way to stay on with Verizon. Yesterday, he upgraded to 2.2 after a delay of about 12 days since the firmware release. He seemed to have foreseen that something could go wrong with the update. Well his fears were true, the Hong Kong iPhone 3G became a brick, cannot even go for downgrading.

Now, along with the new features of 2.2, did Apple implement a mechanism to track location of where the updates are downloaded and where the phones were actually purchased? I hope not. Purchasing an iPhone from anywhere should be fine and Apple must not be bothered about on what network users are using their iPhones. This is still a guess so far, but I’m looking for more information on this.

Victor, this could be a punishment for purchasing your unlocked iPhone in Hong Kong and not officially using it in the same place. Sorry, I was the one who forced you to upgrade, I take that back.

Let us know if you have faced the same problem with officially unlocked iPhone.