The unlocking saga of iPhone entered a new chapter today as Deutsche Telekom won a court battle to lock Apple’s ultimate gadget Tuesday.

Last month British-owned Vodafone had won a court order requiring Deutsche Telekom, the official distributor of the Apple iPhone in Germany, to sell the gadget without a mandatory calling plan.
Apple’s iPhone went on sale on November 9 in Germany at 399 euros ($590) and Deutsche Telekom requires buyers to sign up a two-year contract with its T-Mobile wireless network. The iPhone, effectively an iPod music player with phone and computing features added, has been one of the year's most celebrated new products.

T-Mobile has already reported that they sold over 10,000 devices during the first day on sale. Vodafone feared fears that Apple’s example could represent an inspiration for other mobile phone makers to tie their phones with specific providers.

Still, despite Vodafone’s temporary triumph, its claims were rejected after full arguments of the case were heard in a court in the German city of Hamburg.

The German judges said T-Mobile was entitled to limit sales of the iPhone to customers signing up for a two-year T-Mobile contract.

Vodafone is expected to issue a statement later today, but it is very likely that the company will appeal the ruling.

In the last two weeks, after Vodafone won the injunction, Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary T-Mobile, decided to sell unlocked iPhones for 999 euros 999 Euros (about $1,500). Still some features of the German version of the iPhone were inoperable without T-Mobile service.

As Deutsche Telekom will surely lock down its iPhones if you are still craving for a legally unlocked iPhone, you should consider a trip to France, where Orange, the mobile operator of France Telecom, is selling unlocked iPhones for 649 euros apiece.