This morning at the Regent Street Apple Store, Steve Jobs confirmed the pricing and availability of the iPhone in partnership with 02 and CarphoneWarehouse. The price will be £269 inc VAT ($542) for the 8GB version and it will be available, November 9th. A free Wifi account from the Cloud will also be included.
Are Apple kidding or do they think we are stupid here the UK? They tried this pricing in the US when the iPhone launched and were then forced to provide a rebate which could only be used to buy in the Apple Store.
Personally I am off to the USA in November and will pickup a unlocked version and use my own SIM.
September 18th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
£269 = £229 ex VAT = $459. So only 14% higher than in the USA. (Only!)
But as others have pointed out, equivalent high end phones are typically free on phone contracts in the UK. Still no 3G. Poor coverage for EDGE. And watch that small grey print, unlimited data is actually “within fair usage limits”.
The most interesting thing in the announcement is free Wifi on The Cloud. It’ll be interesting to see how that works in practice and how they know it’s an iPhone accessing it. Come on Skype, do the same.
September 18th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Sure Sam good point, but what happens when you try to Sync your iPhone an Apple just wipes the SIM Unlock software? Or you try the hardware hack and the phone goes boom: http://www.intomobile.com/2007/08/31/hardware-unlocking-effort-results-in-exploded-apple-iphone-hardware-hack-makes-iphone-go-boom.html
September 18th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Sam, $399 in the States does NOT include sales tax that is added at the point of purchase. The rate of which depends on the State. In New York you will pay around 8% on top of the $399
The actual UK premium when you take away tax is around £20.
US iPhone pre tax - $399 (£200)
UK iPhone pre tax - £220 ($440)
Complain about the price difference to the UK government. Not to Apple.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I am bloody furious!
Why in christ name did they use o2 - someone better bloody change these tariffs - cause no one is going to buy this phone - o2 are scum bags - I’m sticking with my T-Mobile contract - £35 for £120 of credit per month - includes both data and blackberry email - why, oh why did Apple pick o2.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Mike if that is the case then I am scuppered. Personally I have just heard from a number of mobile contacts that Apple has just bought up a hold load of 3G chips to include in the updated iPhone.
So maybe I will wait for this new version and maybe wait for the price rebate.
By the way Mike great coverage of the launch on Techcrunch UK.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:40 am
I just can’t see the point of a rich media phone without 3G. So perhaps it’s best to wait till the 3G version comes out
September 19th, 2007 at 9:48 am
The other mobile manufacturers are likely to release something similar in 2008 - big touchscreen, 3G, perhaps HSDPA, Wi-Fi, SIM-free. I’ll wait.
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