Today at MacWorld Expo, Steve Jobs made the much anticipated announcement that the iPhone will be launched this year. The story is being covered thoroughly across the blogosphere with particularly good coverage at Engadget. In short, a very exciting looking product.
The phone will be launched in the US mid year, then Europe before the end of 2007 and Asia in 2008. The prices being announced in the US are based on a Cingular exclusive 2 year contract from $499 for the entry level phone.
My question is- how will this play out in the UK? The networks are very powerful and their model of subsidising at the point of sale is particularly aggressive. Phones that would otherwise retail at around £500 can actually cost the user only a hundred pounds up front if they are on a sufficiently high usage contract. I've never paid for any of my phones because of my business usage, despite opting for the high end business phones each year [Note that it is not unknown for a monthly bill to exceed £1,000 so I don't feel especially priviledged about the situation].
Watch out for announcements.
Tags: Apple, iPhone, technology, telephony, mobile, phone, contract, tariff, network, 3, Vodafone, Orange, O2, mobile
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1 comment:
Good point about the UK market. It looks like Apple will only sell the phone through one carrier in each country (see below Top 10 things to hate).
The iPhone has really grabbed all the headlines as expected. Some are already in love with the product and some point to its major flaws.
See "Top 10 things to love about the iPhone" at http://apcmag.com/4963/ten_things_to_love_about_the_new_iphone
and "Top 10 things to hate about the iPhone" at http://apcmag.com/4965/top_10_things_to_hate_about_the_iphone
Finally and putting my IP hat on, I can't believe Apple incompetence at sorting out the licensing deal for the iPhone trademark before launching the product. It didn't take long for Cisco to sue: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=4266
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