So here are the basics about the iPhone launch in the UK, as announced by Steve Jobs in London. It was a pretty utilitarian affair with a predictable demo by Jobs of the iPhone’s features, an announcement about the carrier, a chat from the O2 CEO Matthew Key (pictured next to Jobs), and some Q&A. Almost everything was predicted beforehand, except the rather clever idea behind O2’s service which will see it partner with European-wide WiFi network The Cloud to bundle in access for iPhone customers and the fact that the iPhone will switch seamlessly onto those Wifi nodes.
For the ‘live blog’ check out CrunchGear here or TechCrunch UK here.
• Apple’s iPhone will go on sale to UK customers on November 9.
• The handset, which will be available exclusively to O2 customers, will cost £269 – more than the $399 (£200) that it costs in the US. Users will have to sign an 18-month contract priced at either £35, £45, or £55 depending on the call package, but this covers “unlimited” per month usage across O2’s network and 7,500 WiFi hotspots managed by The Cloud.
• 02 has partnered with independent retailer Carphone Warehouse to sell the phone, giving Apple 1300 points of distribution in total, covering 90% of the UK population.
• Every store will have an iPhone expert in store. And there will be a dedicated care centre for iPhone customers.
• O2 has fired up its netwrok with the slower Edge technology (as against Europe’s love affair with HSDPA) to accomodate the iPhone.
• There is no 3G iPhone as yet because, as Jobs said at the launch, the “The trade off with 3G [in battery life] is too bad right now.”
• In the UK the iPhone will look for the fastest network and seamlessley switch to it. (That sounds different to how it operates in the US?).
• No Starbucks iTunes music Store in the UK as yet.
• O2 has 5.5 million customers and their in-house research says 80% of their high value customers want an iPhone and 40% of other network’s customers said they would switch carrier to get the iPhone.
• No clues as to who gets the iPhone in France or Germany yet, but it’s almost certainly Orange and T-Mobile respectively.
There seems to be a few problems however, with how the launch with go. The first is the iPod Touch was announced only recently. So to get the iPhone-like features UK Apple fans will probably just get a touch rather than dump the phone and contract they are use to. Plus UK users are used to texting on a proper keypad, not a touch-screen. T9 rules in Europe and the iPhone will take some getting used to for kids who can T9 faster than they can speak (yes, they do exist ). We’ll see…
“So to get the iPhone-like features UK Apple fans will probably just get a touch rather than dump the phone and contract they are use to. Plus UK users are used to texting on a proper keypad, not a touch-screen.”
Showing your true colors here?
How much you got paid by M$ to put some out-of-the-ass FUD?
Indeed a good summary of what ever happened recently. I have been tuned up with http://www.iphoneuklaunch.com/ to see the latest updates and most of which turned out to be true.
And evidently Apple has issued a PR @ http://www.appl...907_iphone.html !!
Can’t wait for it
@Hammer.. lol!!
Cheers,
Vinay
Off topic: I think this might be the only time I’ve seen a TechCrunch article with no graphic.
@2
i agree…people like images; not just all text in a blog article.
Hammer: Seriously man, people on this side of the pond just are not used to texting without a keyboard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m impressed the the iPhone – it’s just that’s untested in Europe where text messaging is God. I think the Wi-Fi play by O2 is a smart move – no-one wants bill-shock with their new phone, and this should cushion O2 against some of that.
Maybe i’m missing your point Hammer, but the quote is perfectly valid in my mind.
Why spend £270 + at least £35/mo to O2 for an iPhone, when I could spend just the £270 for the iPod Touch and keep my perfectly good Sony Ericsson/T-Mobile combo (at 22.50/mo inc. unlimited 3G Web n’ Walk
Did someone say Zune ?
I wonder why Apple products are so much more expensive in Europe… Are they going to drop the price a few days after the launch? hhehehe…
Quite untrue to blame him for putting FUD. Apple does seem to be just too confident for the iPod success and other stuff, to launch a product bearing the coolest GUI ever and the dumbest limitations, all together in a six-pack of cheap beer. While the multitouch is great, it gets dirty way too easily and being unable to a) buy a plain unlocked phone; b) use a really fast network; c) have decent battery life; d) installing whatever you like on your phone; is such a pain in the ass. Really.
Still looks like FUD? Think again. Be aware that, apart of those hype fanboys, potential customers for the iPhone are current smartphones users. I, myself, own an E61 from Nokia and I just _love_ that keyboard and being able to use VoIP through a UMTS connection or simply via WiFi. Also, I love to decide which apps are useful to me and which are not, and install or remove them at will. Being an Apple user for half a decade and witnessing the launch of a beautiful brick that plays music and phones, man, is incredibly disappointing. Even worse when they do say the iPhone runs not on a simple and plain firmware, but instead on a featured operating system. The misconcept of an OS that won´t allow the _owner_ (you own it, not Apple. Right?) to run his fave softwares cannot be called of anything less than dull and odd.
My tuppence.
Chances for a data-bill-shock are rather low, or how many websites per day do you think one can possibly access using a 4k/s “fast” connection? 1400, seriously?
Just a nit to pick – comparing the British prices with American prices without adjusting for the built-in tax (VAT: 17.5%) is nuts. £269 is equivalent to £228, pre-tax, so it’s still a 15% markup, but not 35% as reported here. And 15% is reasonable given the weak dollar, most goods in America are a bit cheaper due to historically low exchange rates.
Unless most people are buying their iPhones in Oregon, they are paying some of that 17.5% back in sales tax. There’s no additional sales tax on a British advertised price.
Also, the O2 contract is for 18 months, not 24 months like on AT&T. When you compare it this way, it isnt more expensive in the UK.
Call me crazy, but i’ve got to agree with Mike,
- Edge networking, they’re actually getting rid of it in most of Europe, because well we’ve got G3 networks and it’s rather expensive to have EDGE and UMTS running alongside (and quite unnecessary).
- I can text message without looking…… which is handy during meetings…
- Why would i change from an operator which provides me good service and fast speeds….
- The touch is cheaper, and the only thing i can’t do with it, is call…
- WiFi isn’t widely spread 7000 accesspoint with a max radius of 100 meters, and i mostly use remote access while on public transport…
Seriously though: £269 + (18 x £35) = £899 and thats the cheaper deal.
The Cloud wifi deal is a nice and unexpected touch but imo you’ll really have to be a pretty big Apple nut to go for this. Here in the UK we are used to getting either free or heavily subsidised phones. Take into account the fact that I could get two 3G & GPS capable KTC Kaisers on contract in the UK with better data and talk deals for less than that (I am aware they havn’t been officially released but several seperate people have confirmed pricing to me) . Each to their own on the keyboard thing but Hammer, Mike is right about differing usage styles in the UK, personally I couldnt live without one.
O2 has 17.785 million subscribers [ http://en.wikip...#United_Kingdom ]
We love Apple,but we sometimes questions
there marketing strategies.
I wonder when the price go down in the UK ?
Slight problem is that O2’s EDGE coverage is currently only 30% of the UK…
Seems that O2 haven’t updated the website. They have the launch date as 19th October. Tease! http://www.o2.c...-_-iphone1-hold
Just a hint on the french iPhone. An interesting meeting with an Orange business representative today, he said, but this is still unconfirmed, that Orange would sell the iPhone and let customers get the carrier they want.
This means that basically the iPhone in France would be unlocked.
Even if this is unconfirmed, a french law forces the carriers to issue an unlocking code for all locked terminals after six months of usage, therefore the french iPhone would be unlockable after 6 months. Time for a parallel market on eBay
@Robbie: There’s a lot more you can’t do with a touch other than call.
- Check email
- Google Maps
- Camera
- Create calendar events
- Create notes
- Bluetooth
- Stocks & weather apps
Not to mention poorer screen quality, no internal speaker or dock included.
[)amien
O2 Can Dooooo!
What is “T9″ is it related to texting?
http://en.wikip...dictive_text%29
wikipedia is your friend
One other point that seems to have been missed. No one actaully buys phones on contracts in the UK. If they can afford to give you a free PS3 or xbox 360 and a phone when you take up an 18 month contract why should you need to pay for an iPhone. Some valid points made by mike about texting, its massive in the uk.
Not sure about the cloud…. coverage = london I suspect…
I wonder how Apple is going to offer the iPhone in Belgium. In Belgium, it’s prohibited by law to do cross selling. Companies can’t sell a product to a customer on the condition that he buys something else too… At least one major belgian telco has already been brought to court and sued because they offered (reduced price) cellphones together with a 24 month subscription…
This may be common practice in the US but in belgium it’s illegal.
Personally, I’m not totally against it but I am disgusted by the way Apple is forcing customers to choose a particular carrier! Especially since there’s no advantage for the customer to switch carriers whatsoever…
I believe the customer should be free to choose which telco they want…
that´s not O2 CEO Matthew Key (pictured next to Jobs), it´s a wax replica!
The iPhone phenomenon and my personal experience.
I have a MBA from UNC Chapel Hill and Master degree in Computer Science/Engineering from UMass at Amhert. I am a software developer, an entrepreneur and I am an iPhone user.
But, forget about my background for a moment and let me tell you two stories (cases) about iPhone experiences from the user point of view and why I think we ain’t seen nuthing yet about the momentum that iPhone is creating for the industry.
Case #1: I have a friend who was about to upgrade to a smartphone. Like any other young (20s something) cell phone users, he uses data more then voice and he spends more of his computing time on his laptop. But, he is a marketing/sale person, not a techie. So, like anyone else, he began shopping around and reading review about smartphones in the U.S. market. His choices came down to either RIM’s blackberry, Palm based treo, Pocket PC based and Nokia smartphones. But, he never considered an iPhone (it was 2 weeks ago, and the 8G iPhone still costs him US$600). One day, after all his research in the market and before he decided to head to Verizon to pickup his blackberry pearl, he called me and asked if that is a good choice. I told him why not give iPhone a try and just get it for a 14 days period, if he didn’t like it, just return it. Well, a few days later he called me again and said that Apple just lowered the price with a US$200 cut on iPhone and he is going to get one and see. Now, it’s been a week since he got his iPhone and he told me that he is keeping the iPhone and the reasons are:
1. It has been the best experience during this past week. He accesses his gmail account for email 24×7, the UI design is so cool and easy.
2. The calling and SMS experience are amazing. iPhone kept all his call logs in a very intuitive way with all his hundreds of contact right there for easy access.
3. He has an iPod, and he sold his iPod. iPhone has become his iPod and smartphone. When a call comes in, music fades away and the transition is awesome. He loves it.
4. He has been using iPhone more than his laptop now, because he can do most of his things now on iPhone (browsing, email, IMs, SMS, etc.). And the other day, he needed to purchase a concert ticket and he thought he have to go back home to use the laptop to research and purchase the ticket online. Instead, he used his iPhone and completed the task while still hanging out with his friends in the mall.
5. This is a plus, I don’t know the truth to it, but here it is. There has been more hot chicks talking to him and having conversation with him now since he got his iPhone. (Don’t know about this one, but he think it’s because iPhone).
Well, it turned out that after he got his iPhone for more than a week, there has been more people around him buying iPhone after he showed them his iPhone. (These people include his father, girlfriend, co-workers and friends that he hangs out the most).
Case #2: I know I will get an iPhone eventually, but I waited for 3 months because there are still some facts that I don’t like about iPhone being a techie:
a. Safari browser under current iPhone does not support flash. So, you know if you are into Web videos, that’s a big minus.
b. There is not ‘upload file’ support under the current Safari browser.
c. There are no native IM clients available.
d. There is google maps integration, but w/o a build-in GPS, it is kinda crippled.
e. Camera quality is overall good, but lack of video capability.
f. I just don’t like AT&T’s EDGE network (non-3G). This is actually a BIG one.
But then, I was ready to visit China and Taiwan for 10 days and want to show off an iPhone to all my friends and family there how sexy an iPhone is. So, I went and bought one from AT&T store just one day before my trip. I thought I will return it after the trip and wait for Apple to improve those minus points I listed above then I will get one again.
Well, the minute I got my iPhone, I played with Safari and I decided to write Safari app for it. So, 3 hrs later, I have a simple photo sharing app ready before I head to Asia. I was excited that, now, not only I can show them the iPhone, I have a custom built app for it.
I didn’t return my iPhone after my trip and I found out more about why I am keeping it:
1. All the 5 points in the Case #1 applies to my case except the #5 (I am married).
2. Inside iPhone is actually OS X, which is a BSD based UNIX operating system. That means it is a fullblown UNIX computer. Not a handicaped smart phone. So, just this one, set it apart from the rest of the competiters out there in the smartphone market. All the UNIX developer out there can start developing applications for it only to learn a tiny bit of other things what iPhone UI is all about, but as far as programming go, they will really feel at home (Well, at this moment, Apple hasn’t decided to open up for 3rd party developers yet. e.g. Sarafi as a development platform is quite limited.) But this has prevent people from coming out of native apps. At the moment, I have about 20 3rd party apps on my iPhone.
3. Being a developer and an user, I spend more time on my iPhone because it allows me to:
a. ssh into my server to do whatever I need to do remotely. (It is sorta like my 24×7 ultra portable computer). I actually ssh into my server in the co-location server and applied a patch to my web server application and reboot apache and published a new release for my web app. Sent out emails to my users annouced the new release and exchanged some messages with the users. All in the comfort of StarBucks couch.
b. read online bible (the book of Romans) while I was waiting for a friend outside the bench of Barns and Noble under the early morning sun.
c. browse and edit my blog while listening to my iTunes collections.
d. get a call from my sister while listening to iPod, and on hold to check an email message about a question she asked me and resume to tell her the answer.
e. I am helping a friend who is a very talented graphics artist to customized (pimp) his iPhone in a way that no other smartphone out there are capable. i.e. customized ring tone, rearrange the whole dock, icons, themes and install my unix scripts onto his iPhone for automatic tasks and this is all FREE to him. And, I believe there will be some good business models coming out of this effort.
4. Well, it turned out most of the smartphones out there are also suffering a lot of those minus points I listed above (a – f).
5. Apple can really release a update on it’s iPhone firmware and most of (a – f) will be gone.
So, do I need to continue why there is an iPhone phenomenon?
Now, here is a trick that Apple deals with the AT&T disadvatage. Apple just introduced iPod Touch. For those who doesn’t really like AT&T and don’t really need another smartphone, there is a very good reason to jump on the bandwagon now and enjoy the life style that I have mentioned above having a UNIX computer and iPod in your pocket all the time, 24×7.
A picture is worth a thousand words…This is the coming of the cloud across the countries I notice. How many nodes are there throghout britain? And is there the Google Phone coming or is that just conjecture?
As for the iPhone, O2 actually sounds good, the whole only one service in the US for carrier-necessities was a big mistake. I especially love how a young hacker even took down the security protocols for the Wi-Fi access. Cheers. I can’t wait to see if the cloud will make the Wi-Fi nice for the iPhone. I still have yet to get an iPhone though…
Eventually, there’s still too much hype with little substance other than a sometimes fast-moving GUI.
Well its’ going to start working in UK from November, anyone got a clue when it would reach Asia?
@damian
Well yess, but for that I can use my current phone which can do all that. And get a decent speed out of it. And my phone has GPS….
Another minor problem, which Apple would face in my country (Netherlands) is that all providers have or are dismantling the Edge network….
Without a keyboard, I have to look at the phone for a lot of calling operations, for instance when i listen to my voicemails, there are several keys i can press for FF etc.
AFAIK the bluetooth implementation of the iPhone is crippled…
I like the Touch/iPod, because there are moments i don’t need to have my phone around..
@1:
I thought people stopped writing “M$” around 1999. Yeah, it’s a corporation. Yeah, they’re out to make money. So is Appl€ (sp?).
The major sticking points for European customers are likely to be no tactile feedback for texting and the Edge network. US customers text far less and the Edge network is king here – not the case in Europe. And it still amazes me that many people haven’t yet realized why customers buy the iPhone – it’s a slick all-in-one device. It’s not for the power business user, it’s for the tech yuppie that lives in all of us.
And I don’t see many people thinking to themselves “I’d like to buy an iPhone, but I’ll just buy an iPod touch instead”
The iPhone is for Mactards and fashion lemmings; the “smartphone” for dummies.
I just want ONE device to do everything… I can use my phone currently to:
- make calls
- listen to my music library
- listen to radio
- watch &make movies
- watch & make pictures
- manage my contacts
- connect my laptop to the internet using bluetooth (3G)
- browse the web
- email
- send messages
- get realtime traffic information
- navigate using gps (tomtom)
- play games while I’m waiting…
- as a calculator/currency converter
I want ONE device in my pocket to do all of that, not 10!
IPhone! – Hahahahahahaha $500! Fully subsidized!
If that isn’t the most expensive phone in the world and it does not even appeal to business customers because it doesn’t even have a keboard, which makes it not a very good e-mail machine! It may sell well or not, I don’t know, but we have our plan and I like it very much. We have great windows mobile devices in the market today. We have the Motorola phone for just $99, it will play pong, it will do e-mail, do internet, …..
I like our strategy I like it a lot!
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
Thanks for all these comments people. In particular I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how the iPhone works out in Europe given the plethora of regulatory limits on the whole network lock-down, plus how we are Europeans will react to a fully touch screen phone, when keyboards and predictive texting have dominated for the last 10 years.
Whenever I am out of a 3G area and back into the GPRS world it drives me totally insane, it feels like swimming in treacle.
Think 300/300 and the Wildcat BBS days. I could never ever possibly dream of buying a non 3G device especially one so feature laden to take advantage of the web etc. I saw the comment that a trade off with 3g is too bad, but with my N95 it seems the bluetooth and wifi and GPS mapping are the really battery culprits.
I can understand why most who haven’t used 3G can dismiss it easily, but the lack of it in a market arena that has it will be very trying. I can imagine a lot of people/early adopters here will have had 3G capable phones going to an Apple and then wondering why it feels so slow for email, browsing etc.
As for cloud WiFi even in the city it’s pretty patchy and you pretty much have to stand still if you are using it.
As a BRIT with an unlocked iPhone, I love the touch screen, different but great. Its a great product, even if it is fashionable or a Smartphone for dummies. What’s the point of making something hard, technology makes life easier. So what if Microsoft are making a mint, I’m a willing victim.
The phone is superb, it sync’s up immediately and I cant wait to see what’s next !