I didn’t say you can’t buy one online. . . I said you can’t buy one from an Apple Store. Apple put in place a policy that Apple retail stores would not sell unlocked iPhone 6 models until the official rollout in China to prevent scalping and smuggling. . . and the overwhelming of the lines by resellers trying to arbitrage iPhones. Buying at US prices and selling on the black or gray market in China where, if you could get past China customs, iPhone 6 Plus phones were going for a reported $3600 to $4000.
Apple did not want the false rumors, such as “the first four hundred people in line at New York’s Fifth Avenue Store were all non-English speaking Asians, coming to buy iPhones to take home to China” to be a reality. There were similar rumors about the Soho Store, the London Store, in fact almost every large cities Apple Store had similar rumors of huge numbers of Asians in line to buy up all of the iphones available before anyone else could get any. These rumors flew despite videos showing lines of multi-ethnic Americans in every locality, speaking English. In any case, Apple spread the word that unlocked iPhones would not be sold at their retail stores. The rumors continued anyway. Most likely the idea was a marketing ploy to discourage potential iphone buyers.
In the past, Apple limited purchasers of iPhones to one or two per customer to prevent the resellers from hogging the available supply, but families often want one for all members now. On line bulk straw sales are still limited, and Apple monitors shipping addresses to prevent multiple sales. The key to now avoiding the resellers at the retail stores is to prohibit unlocked sales for the first few weeks until the primary gray market, in this current case China, is rolled out. Apple was planning to rollout China at the same time as the U.S., avoiding the problem, but the Chinese bureaucrats have yet to approve the models for use on the Chinese networks.
In the case I mentioned of the Asians who wanted the unlocked iPhones, they were told they could try on line. Another Arab looking fellow who got in line looking for an unlocked iPhone was told a similar thing but he decided to buy an AT&T model because his country has them as a carrier. He commented later that AT&T was good about unlocking in his part of the world for travelers.
The two phones my friend bought, which are now in Jeddah, were purchased at an Apple Store in OC. Don’t know what to tell you about your local store.