Discussion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7000370.stm
O2, November 9th, 8gb, £269+ Monthly contract price (Guessing that will be around £40pm)
Personally I'm going to buy a 16gb iTouch and then get a phone of my choice with the provider of my choice
O2, November 9th, 8gb, £269+ Monthly contract price (Guessing that will be around £40pm)
Personally I'm going to buy a 16gb iTouch and then get a phone of my choice with the provider of my choice
Edited by Civpilot on Tuesday 18th September 10:27
Not sure why there's nearly 2 months more to wait when it's the same hardware. Will probably pick up one in the US when I go next month, activate and unlock, and use it with my own SIM - I'm currently on a 12-month cashback deal with t-mobile web&walk, and will probably get something similar when that runs out.
Cloud thing *is* interesting - they have all-but-admitted that Europe simply doesn't consider EDGE adequate (and plain GPRS is even worse).
I test ran a bike race clip on YouTube on my iPhone using Vodafone plain GPRS in the pub on Sunday evening and it was barely usable - lots of pauses for buffering, and the quality was very low.
Incidentally, before Vodafone offered their HSDPA modem for my laptop (which gets 1 Mb/sec most of the time, so I'm happy when out and about with it now), I attempted a subscription service for Wifi hotspots. I used BT Openzone and it basically didn't work. I think it managed to log into about 1 out of every 10 hotspots it was *meant* to have 'agreements' with. This meant airport usage, one of the main drivers for buying their 'service', was useless.
I'd signed up for a 12 month contract with BT for Openzone but the customer service guys there agreed that their cross-network roaming / login for Wifi nodes simply didn't work and they refunded all my money and cancelled the contract
So unless things have changed, the state of paid-for Wifi in Britain is a joke. Firstly it should be free (the iPhone is pretty good at picking up networks, and you may be able to find somewhere free if you're lucky) but the big operators (Cloud, Openzone, Telabria (still going?) etc.) charge utterly insane fees for short term usage.
My local pub used to charge £2 per hour or £10 for the day which I found obnoxious - they've made it free now so I was having fun with the iPhone in the pub well before the GSM unlock
Interesting to hear that they haven't stoked the price up though, but the O2 data plans will sting. I was right about 3G, as expected. I am awaiting to find out whether they've firstly changed the firmware (some international dialling bugs to fix!) and also whether they've integrated the 'free Cloud' usage properly... I can see plenty of 'normal' consumers getting pissed off with this...
I test ran a bike race clip on YouTube on my iPhone using Vodafone plain GPRS in the pub on Sunday evening and it was barely usable - lots of pauses for buffering, and the quality was very low.
Incidentally, before Vodafone offered their HSDPA modem for my laptop (which gets 1 Mb/sec most of the time, so I'm happy when out and about with it now), I attempted a subscription service for Wifi hotspots. I used BT Openzone and it basically didn't work. I think it managed to log into about 1 out of every 10 hotspots it was *meant* to have 'agreements' with. This meant airport usage, one of the main drivers for buying their 'service', was useless.
I'd signed up for a 12 month contract with BT for Openzone but the customer service guys there agreed that their cross-network roaming / login for Wifi nodes simply didn't work and they refunded all my money and cancelled the contract
So unless things have changed, the state of paid-for Wifi in Britain is a joke. Firstly it should be free (the iPhone is pretty good at picking up networks, and you may be able to find somewhere free if you're lucky) but the big operators (Cloud, Openzone, Telabria (still going?) etc.) charge utterly insane fees for short term usage.
My local pub used to charge £2 per hour or £10 for the day which I found obnoxious - they've made it free now so I was having fun with the iPhone in the pub well before the GSM unlock
Interesting to hear that they haven't stoked the price up though, but the O2 data plans will sting. I was right about 3G, as expected. I am awaiting to find out whether they've firstly changed the firmware (some international dialling bugs to fix!) and also whether they've integrated the 'free Cloud' usage properly... I can see plenty of 'normal' consumers getting pissed off with this...
kiwisr said:
Interesting about the free WiFi with The Cloud. Wonder how good their coverage is - they say City of London and Canary Wharf but I've yet to see them appear in my WiFi Lists.
The Cloud was working in the Wetherspoons at Canary Wharf last night. Catch me paying £5/hr for wifi though when there are so many unsecured wifi networks there.I think my 16GB iPod touch (pre-ordered, wooyay) plus my Nokia 6310i/6300 combo (I use one or t'other depending on whether I need mondo battery life or not) is a better deal.
The cheapest contract is 35 nicker a month, and they're all 18 months. Pity. 3G would have sweetened the deal considerably.
If they start turning up on eBay, then I might pick one up and unlock it.
The cheapest contract is 35 nicker a month, and they're all 18 months. Pity. 3G would have sweetened the deal considerably.
If they start turning up on eBay, then I might pick one up and unlock it.
Edited by CommanderJameson on Tuesday 18th September 11:27
page3 said:
£269 + £35/month for 'unlimited' WiFi & DATA, free voicemail, 200 mins, 200 texts.
Seems fine to me
So around £689 for your first 12months of ownership and over the full 18months of your contract a whopping £899 (provided you don't spend anything over the allowed minutes or texts) and locked to O2.Seems fine to me
Or an itouch for £269 with double the memory and a free phone of your choice, with the contract of your choice with the provider of your choice?
Nah, itouch still wins it for me as the only reason to want an iphone over any other phone is the interface (lets face it, the tech may be high, but the phone spec is low compared to some 3g handsets out there). This same interface is available on the itouch in a smaller package at a much lower cost.
So for the £630 I will save over 18months (itouch, no O2 contract) I will happily carry both a phone and an ipod as I always have done.
I have to admit I'm not tempted by the iPhone. However, what I do find interesting is the fact that its selling like crazy. I can't get in to shop.o2 and I know just how big n' nasty that system is.
But what I'm looking forward to is how the other companies respond to the iPhone, both in terms of service/packages but also how Nokia and co go about brining out an 'iPhone killer'... one of those hypothetical devices, might well tempt me away from my 6680.
But what I'm looking forward to is how the other companies respond to the iPhone, both in terms of service/packages but also how Nokia and co go about brining out an 'iPhone killer'... one of those hypothetical devices, might well tempt me away from my 6680.
The best 'iPhone killer' would be an iPhone without the network locks and other irritating bullshit.
18 month contracts? You won't catch me signing up to one of those - 12 months is bad enough with the state of technology improvements. It's almost mandatory to review your mobile plans every 3 months now to make sure you're not being utterly ripped off.
Also Apple appear to have done very little in the way of iPhone upgrades (i.e. international language support for the keyboard, etc.) that most Europeans other than the Brits were asking for... and it's still only a UK launch (no Germany / France) and not available until November?? WTF?
Lame. At least I'm still able to flash mine around without it being ubiquitous just yet
18 month contracts? You won't catch me signing up to one of those - 12 months is bad enough with the state of technology improvements. It's almost mandatory to review your mobile plans every 3 months now to make sure you're not being utterly ripped off.
Also Apple appear to have done very little in the way of iPhone upgrades (i.e. international language support for the keyboard, etc.) that most Europeans other than the Brits were asking for... and it's still only a UK launch (no Germany / France) and not available until November?? WTF?
Lame. At least I'm still able to flash mine around without it being ubiquitous just yet
I wonder what this will do to the prices these things fetch on eBay at the moment? Fully unlocked (as far as they can be) examples are typically bringing between £450 and £550 and require no specialised contract or indeed network.
I'm also interested as to the activation sequence with these handsets. Can anyone 'buy' one at £269, regardless of credit history? The literature seems to suggest that this is the case, and that online activation is the thing that requires credit checking and contract signing.
I'm also interested as to the activation sequence with these handsets. Can anyone 'buy' one at £269, regardless of credit history? The literature seems to suggest that this is the case, and that online activation is the thing that requires credit checking and contract signing.
ehyouwhat said:
I wonder what this will do to the prices these things fetch on eBay at the moment? Fully unlocked (as far as they can be) examples are typically bringing between £450 and £550 and require no specialised contract or indeed network.
I'm also interested as to the activation sequence with these handsets. Can anyone 'buy' one at £269, regardless of credit history? The literature seems to suggest that this is the case, and that online activation is the thing that requires credit checking and contract signing.
IIRC correctly you don't need a credit hostory to get a phone from O2, although you may be asked to leave a security deposit of £250.I'm also interested as to the activation sequence with these handsets. Can anyone 'buy' one at £269, regardless of credit history? The literature seems to suggest that this is the case, and that online activation is the thing that requires credit checking and contract signing.
Civpilot said:
page3 said:
£269 + £35/month for 'unlimited' WiFi & DATA, free voicemail, 200 mins, 200 texts.
Seems fine to me
So around £689 for your first 12months of ownership and over the full 18months of your contract a whopping £899 (provided you don't spend anything over the allowed minutes or texts) and locked to O2.Seems fine to me
Or an itouch for £269 with double the memory and a free phone of your choice, with the contract of your choice with the provider of your choice?
Nah, itouch still wins it for me as the only reason to want an iphone over any other phone is the interface (lets face it, the tech may be high, but the phone spec is low compared to some 3g handsets out there). This same interface is available on the itouch in a smaller package at a much lower cost.
So for the £630 I will save over 18months (itouch, no O2 contract) I will happily carry both a phone and an ipod as I always have done.
iPhone = £269 + 35 p/m = £899
iPod Touch (8Gb) £200
Blackberry on T-Mobile Web'n'Walk 20 (18 months) £89 + £25 p/m + £5 p/m (est. voicemail use)
= £829*
* doesn't include WiFi roaming
The iPhone seems a bargain to me!
Edited by page3 on Tuesday 18th September 12:32
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