Apple has formally announced the release date for the iPhone in Germany.
Germany will get the iPhone November 9th. The 8GB iPhone will retail for €399 ($557) including tax, and like in the United States is tied to a 2 year contract. German iPhone users will have access to iPhone features such as visual voicemail, Google Maps, WiFi iTunes Store, etc. Plans have not been announced yet.
No confirmation on the iPhone launching in France yet, despite TechCrunch France’s hot tip of a November 29 release date.
More at CrunchGear.
Didn’t they release iPhones in Germany already?
What the hell does that title mean???
No shmuck, read the post.
My comment was to #1.
Yeah, whats with the title?
Yeah, Duncan, I don’t get it either. What are you trying to communicate to us with that title?
Error in “Germany Takes Apple To 3 Before Lunch with 191 To Win”: syntax error. Could not parse, giving up.
My guess is that it means Germany is the 3rd country out of 194 in the world, leaving 191 left to rule the world.
bsloane – got it. So we have:
Germany takes Apple to [a total of] 3 [countries] Before Lunch[time today,] with 191 [countries left] to [go]. (”Win” is really not very idiomatic.)
Not any less awkward than the original, but at least it’s intelligible!
Do I win something? How about an iPhone?
This is great, I bought it already and I’m happy with it. I tell u people buy it very good thing.
Wow… that title is retarded. Is Duncan working under the influence?
that crazy duncan, can’t even get his cricket references right
I’ll have what he’s having
bsloane got it, there are 194 countries in the world, iPhone in Germany takes the score to 3 with 191 until available everywhere. The entire phrase is a cricket term…sorry you Americans aren’t civilized enough to get it (joking…mostly
).
I came for the title, and I stayed for the Legos.
yeah, what does the title mean? I don’t get it. and I’m German.
(damn it. always hit refresh before commenting in an ancient tab)
Have they announced a date for the 33% price drop as well?
ok, title changed, trust me though, I’m not the retarded one, sorry for (OMFG) having an education and a view that doesn’t stop at the Canadian border.
Jebidiah, I spent 3 years working at the WACA…so I do know cricket phrases, trust me.
all your iPhones are belong to us!
See this dot? . If you compare this dot to the remaining area on this web page, you’ll get a proportion that’s pretty similar to the proportion of people in this country that have played cricket.
Of course! *facepalm* It’s all *our* fault for not being familiar with a sport and its collective idioms. I apologize for spewing my idiocy all over your meticulously-crafted and elucidatingly eloquent blog post. It’s not a writer’s job to address their audience, but their audience’s job to be aware of whatever obscure references an author may feel like using today. Shame on us, all of us, and a thousand apologies. I’m off to learn cricket. Any other sports I should familiarize myself with to get the full effect of your oevre? Perhaps curling or croquet?
what’s cricket?
Gah! Why haven’t they announced a date for a Canadian release yet? Gah!
I thought it was a catchy title….
Agnoster
Cricket is played in countries with a population of over 1 billion people. Baseball and American football are played in well…the United States which has fewer people. Japan doesn’t count, they’re not very good at baseball..so I’m told
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
My opinions of European governments, laws, culture, socialist dogma, infrastructure, deodorants, styles and stupidity are well known. Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-european, I am just against stupidity! Whether it comes from Apple, IBM or the EU Competition Commission.
How can we stop people from buying our products?
How can we cease to be a monopoly when our customers make us that?
If we are put in a position of dominance, shouldn’t we dominate?
Shouldn’t we crush the small companies which threaten what our customers clearly want,- US?
“Microsoft must now comply fully with its legal obligations to desist from engaging in anticompetitive conduct. The Commission will do its utmost to ensure that Microsoft complies swiftly,” – Neelie Kroes (EU greasy lawyer) said in a statement.
Hey Neelie! “Neelie”, lol, What cha’ gonna do if I just close down all of our operations over there?
That would solve a lot of our problems, wouldn’t it?
You would no longer have to worry about MS and we would no longer have to worry about guys like you constantly whining and sucking us dry!
I’m gonna give this option some serious thought. Who needs that funny pink, green and blue money of you people’s anyways?
As a German (living in Tokyo, mind you), I am eager to see how Apple will do in my home country.
The German media covered the US launch at length (including Whoopi Goldberg’s appearance, the people waiting in line). Later, the price drop was also a rather big issue in Germany.
Big Steve even came to Berlin to introduce the iphone to the Germans.
I don’t think it will become a superduper major hit in Germany/Europe but who knows….
Duncan – I’m not advocating adding *more* obscure references to baseball or football. (Sports metaphors do nothing for me, regardless of the sport in question.) But assuming you *do* feel the need to pepper your prose with references to athletic achievements, I’d wager that even if the world population as a whole plays more cricket (with soccer even more popular) it’s unlikely to be as well-received in your audience (unless you believe that your audience is a perfectly demographic representation of the world population – and even then, only one in six people is likely to get your reference). Without any hard numbers, I’d expect your readership has a lower chance of getting a cricket reference than the world population at large, bringing the number under 1/6 and probably under 1/10. I could be wrong – it’s possible TechCrunch is read disproportionately by non-North American former British colonies. But somehow, I doubt it.
Also, passive-aggressive comments suggesting the fault lies with your readers for not being educated enough – or even being “retarded” – is poor form, stating “I’m not the retarded one, sorry for (OMFG) having an education and a view that doesn’t stop at the Canadian border.” A writer tailors the idioms and expressions they use to match their audience if the purpose is to communicate – if the purpose is merely to demonstrate the esoteric breadth of their knowledge, this rule may of course be safely ignored.
“Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world.” (http://en.wikip...rg/wiki/Cricket). It’s in Wikipedia, so it must be true.
Personally I find cricket stupendously boring, but full marks to Duncan for the linguistic effort. Some of us appreciate a little sophistication from time to time!
Imo, in Germany, you need to sign a contract when you buy the phone, in the shop. so imo this is a good deal for apple and t-mobile..
If you’re based in or around Germany and interested in developing stuff for the iPhone, check out iPhoneDevCampDE.
The exact date and location should be announced shortly, now that they know the iPhone is actually on its way.
Lego is Danish, not German, arseholes.