In case you missed the action the last few days over in Germany over the iPhone, let me catch you up to date. On Monday, Vodafone filed a preliminary injunction regarding Deutsche Telekom T-Mobile’s marketing of the iPhone in Germany. At issue is the bundling of the iPhone with certain T-Mobile subscription plans and the exclusive use of the T-Mobile network with the iPhone. Vodafone said it “isn’t generally opposed to T-Mobile’s exclusivity contract with Apple, but wants to have these new sales practices examined”.

Today, T-Mobile said it will sell an unlocked version of the iPhone. As expected, the price of an unlocked iPhone is high. For just 999 euros ($1,478 USD) you can get yourself an unlocked iPhone from T-Mobile. This move is aimed at complying with the injunction while trying to protect the exclusivity of offering the iPhone and the profit that the two year agreement brings. Selling the iPhone unlocked sounds like a temporary move based on a statement the company released saying it would abide by the conditions “until the legal situation is resolved”.

Besides the high price, using the iPhone on another carrier will also leave you out of the Visual Voicemail game since it requires some secret carrier mojo on the back-end. How many people will choose the high price of the unlocked iPhone in addition to the monthly service contract of their current carrier? Only time will tell.