NXP and Purple Labs Unveil Sub-$100 3G Linux Mobile Phone

Actually, I took it to mean exactly what you wished, as in "the price to 
transfer the unlock", as opposed to "the price, often quoted as "free", at 
which the phone comes with a lockin contract of some several years 
duration".

Of course, those in the "Free Software" community should realize more than 
anyone that the "free" above isn't really "Free", due to those 
contracts...

OTOH (here comes the disclaimer!), I don't have a mobile as I've simply 
not been able to justify the monthly cost over a wired dedicated phone 
service, which BTW I now can't justify over that of VoIP (FWIW over wired 
cable modem), so I follow the industry only at a bit of distance.  As 
such, it wasn't worth reading the full article, so the above is perhaps 
simply naive optimism. =8^]

Duncan