The day, the iPhone Europe died
Sep 18
That’s today. Steve just announced the iPhone for UK for November, 9th. No 2nd generation iPhone, no UMTS. The same iPhone they sell in the US. Provider will be O2 UK. They will sell it for 269 pound sterling, which is about 390€ or 540$. 18 month contract from 50 to 79€ (or 70 to 110$) including a data flatrate with EDGE.
But wait, a real data flatrate? NO! It’s limited to 1,400 web pages per day (What?) due to fair usage agreement. Wait, where are we - year 2007, isn’t it? Data flatrates everywhere.. In Germany you get a UMTS flatrate for 25€ (35$) per month - real UMTS!
So, they’re using EDGE - the good old GSM way. So what’s the EDGE coverage in UK? 30%? What? Yes, it’s true! So what are they doing? Of course, they will upgrade their network for EDGE. Isn’t that crazy? It’s just a couple of years ago that European providers starting investing billions in upgrading their networks to UMTS - that is way ahead of the plenty 20 year old GSM standard. So - here comes one man with one phone and - and they’re dropping their efforts in the next mobile telephony generation?! *shaking head*
Similar agreements with other European provider are expected for the next days/weeks.
That’s it. Goodbye iPhone Europe.
Sep 18 at 16:07
I don’t think Germany has this problem (30% EDGE coverage) - but it’s still crazy that companies change their investment plans in a matter of weeks just to be capable of getting in a deal with Apple.
Greets from Germany,
Johannes
Sep 30 at 20:16
Pathetic,…
I was hoping for a better iPhone in Europe, since the day they announced that baby in the States. I even planned to buy it there, but everybody around, was tellin me - dude wait till they release it here in Europe, then you’ll get UMTS/3G and MMS (the iPhone doesnt even have MMS)
But what?! More than 6 months have passed and the only thing Apple did was, printed regional iPhone boxes and got some bad ass expensive contracts.
Tss, i was always a fan of Apples design, but thats true shit. I am not going to spend about 450 Euros (with an expensive contract) for a phone that has less features than a good 300 Euro Nokia (with cheap O2 contract) No way! Good bye iPhone Europe.
All the best from Poland,
Bart
Oct 15 at 15:23
This review makes some good points:
http://www.newgripen.org/tech-and-sport.php/2007/10/15/iphone_review_a_look_ahead_to_the_europe
A lot of people in Europe already have 3G phones, so €399 is going to seem like a heft price tag to them.
Mar 10 at 10:12
i just imported my iphone from the us. due to the usd-eur exchange it cost me 370 eur. the i unlocked it and now i can use it with my o2de for 0 eur / month
i think about getting a umts flat from base but i am not quite sure yet