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Retailer giving away free iPhone 7 to the first five who officially change their name to "Seven iPhone"

By Victor Hristov

Updated: Oct 18, 2016, 3:33 AM

23comments

An illustration shows a passport of someone who changed their name for an iPhone 7. On the left, a sign says "What are you willing to do for an iPhone 7?

What are you willing to do to get the new Apple iPhone 7 for free?

If you are one of Apple's faithful, you might actually be willing to go the extra mile and do something a little bit crazy for such an offer. Usually this type of giveaways requires you to subscribe to a channel, like a video or share a commercial message.

However, Ukraine's largest phone retailer, Allo.ua, is carrying out an iPhone 7 giveaway with some crazy rules: the first five people that officially changes their name to "Sim iPhone" (literally, meaning "Seven iPhone", where Sim is the personal name, while iPhone is the surname) are getting the hot new phone for the equivalent of a US nickel (or 1 Ukrainian hryvnia). The website does not clarify which storage version it's giving away, but does mention that it will give away black iPhones.

Ready to change your name for an iPhone?

Yes, this needs to be official: the store will require participants to first send in a selfie with their newly issued passport with the new name clearly printed in there, and then show up with the passport in store.

To better understand why such a crazy offer might be of consideration to people in Ukraine, it's worth noting that both Russia and Ukraine have suffered huge devaluations of their currencies after Russian troops invaded the Crimean peninsula and the Eastern regions of Ukraine. With an official average salary of just around 5,200 Ukrainian hryvnias, the equivalent of $203, the iPhone 7 with its prices starting at 23,500 hryvnias ($917) is way out of reach for the majority of Ukrainian citizens. This means that it takes some four and a half average salaries to buy an iPhone 7 in Ukraine.

Of course, the whole meaning of that giveaway is some crazy publicity and while the rules are definitely insane, we've seen people in the past sell their kidneys for an iPad, so we're glad we're hearing less of those truly horrifying stories these days.

source: Allo.ua (translated)

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Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.