iPhone, Limited, Locked, but Desired

A woman with an accent, European it seemed, came into the Apple Store near the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan today and asked a salesperson if she could buy some iPhones for her friend who was returning home. The clerk told her limit was five, she could not use cash, and they were locked to AT&T in the US (but he also said they couldn't say what she did with them after they brought them home). Tacitly, a recognition that folks will buy the phones, hack them and do what they want. And, silly, that Apple limits purchases in this way. A sign of non-internationalization ... who wants a phone locked to one country's network?