Behind the scenes: Unlocking iPhones in Vietnam

Each such unlocking job takes about an hour to complete and costs 1.2 million dong (about £50), a small fortune in Vietnam. Tuan Anh said that so far his business has unlocked hundreds of iPhone 3Gs and thousands of first-generation iPhones.

He also said that if an iPhone has been unlocked under the firmware version 2.1 or earlier, upgrading to version 2.2 will lock it again. This is because the 2.2 update is the first update that alters the baseband chip, a clear move by Apple to counter the software-based unlocking solution. In this case, Tuan Anh is willing to re-unlock it for a discount price of around £30.

In case of mishaps, Tuan Anh said he would give clients a new phone. Considering that an iPhone 3G goes for somewhere between £500 and £700 in Hanoi, this is a bold statement but, so far, he has yet to break a customer's iPhone. He did, however, lose two iPhone 3Gs while mastering the unlocking process in the phone's early days — a £1,800 investment at that time.

The demand for the iPhone and iPhone 3G in Vietnam is high. Prior to my trip here, a few friends asked me to bring one for them from the US. Some even offered to pay me extra. I didn't have time to take up any offers and obviously missed an opportunity to get my trip partially paid for. Still, I've seen a lot of people here with the iPhone. Tuan Anh said most iPhones 3G in Hanoi come from the US and Australia.