Apple starts selling the iPhone X unlocked and SIM-free in the US

There's no doubt the iPhone X is an attractive slab of a gadget but with all that complicated tech to fit together, and a later launch than this year's other iPhones, rumors have persisted that Apple has been struggling to make enough of the flagship handsets to keep up with demand.

Well, if there were ever any supply problems, it seems they're easing - Apple just put an unlocked, SIM-free version of the iPhone X up for sale for the first time from its official US store, with a starting price of $999 and a shipping time of 5 business days.

Over in the UK the phone has never had to be tied to a carrier when purchased, and the store is currently showing a delivery date of December 13 if you buy it today. Those of you in Australia can get the same delivery date, again SIM-free, but the fact that the deal has now arrived in the US as well is significant.

All I want for Christmas is an iPhone X

This is all good news for phone buyers, considering many analysts were expecting stock to be low until the start of 2018 at the earliest. For Apple to put the phone on sale SIM-free with a 5-day lead time shows that it's confident in fulfilling plenty of orders in time for the Christmas rush.

Of course the iPhone X marks Apple's first foray into the world of OLED displays, and with the added complexity of the Face ID scanning system, it's something new for Apple's established supply chain partners to have to cope with. Apparently though, everyone is copying just fine.

And what of next year? The rumors are already doing the rounds that we're going to see two iPhone X-style devices next year, one with a 6.1-inch screen, as Apple ditches the old iPhone 8-style handsets. In the meantime, if you want yourself a 2017 iPhone X without a carrier contract, now's the time to buy.