“Few mobile phones have created more buzz before becoming a reality than Apple’s iPhone — even in Europe and Asia, which will not see the talked-about handset for many months,” Thomas Crampton reports for The New York Times.
“Apple says that sales of iPhones will begin in the United States in late June, in Europe later this year and in Asia next year. But the company has been silent on how the iPhone will be distributed in Europe, prompting speculation about operator alliances and retail partnerships,” Crampton reports. “The approach in the fragmented European market is widely expected to be different from the one employed in the American introduction, which is AT&T’s exclusively.”
“Almost half of current iPod owners would consider the iPhone as their next mobile phone, according to a survey of 2,000 Europeans by Canalys, a research firm based in Reading, England. And an online poll conducted in April by the British online publisher Shiny Media found that 25 percent of those surveyed would be willing to switch service providers to own an iPhone,” Crampton reports.
Crampton reports, “If iPhones in Europe support 3G [Related article: Apple preps 3G iPhone model for Europe – February 25, 2007], the two most likely beneficiaries would be 3, a Hutchison Whampoa mobile network that has 3G licenses in Austria, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Sweden, and T-Mobile, which has 3G licenses in Austria, Britain and Germany, analysts said,” Crampton reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “RadDoc” for the heads up.]
Latest rumours are T-Mobile for Apple’s partner for iPhone in Europe, rather than Vodafone the previous remoured candidate.
T-Mobile sucks for UK as their coverage is poorest of the big four networks, with only ‘3’ worse; and their customer service isn’t exactly renound. 🙁
Actually, isn’t that the same as Cingular / A&T Mobile in the USA?
First there used to be wannabe iPod killers, and now there’ll be plenty of iPhone wannabes… Yaaaaawn….
“Few mobile phones have created more buzz before becoming a reality than Apple’s iPhone — even in Europe and Asia, which will not see the talked-about handset for many months.”
Let’s read about European and Asian opinions AFTER reviewers and consumers in U.S. get their hands on iPhone. A lot can change in “many months”.
Oh please let it be ‘3’ in the UK – Their whole approach is to allow consumers basically free reign on data downloads. Being with them has totally changed how I use my phone: Skype for o/s calls, MSN Messenger (I know I know, but all my workmates use it – and it’s my company’s authorised messenger) for IM,
Google maps, etc
And after my £5 a month for X-series it is all included (with an acceptable use policy of 1GB a month)
Vodafone are still charging £12/Mb or something like it….
I just think this kind of approach is needed for consumers to really get to use the iPhone like it’s meant to be used…
And the iPhone gets launched in Australia straight after the US.
Do you think if I say that a million more times it could happen.
Well, it’s worth a try.
@3 fan
That sounds great, and to be fair I have heard that T-Mobile are offering fixed price data access on their phones but haven’t confirmed that by checking on their site or anything.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> If T-Mobile are offering fixed price for data that could make iPhone not too bad on their network I guess.
MDN word: costs, as in mobile telephoney costs a lot
The Whampoa ads are just great! Don’t you like the sound of WHAMPOA. Whoa! it’s whampoa! phwoar! it’s whampoa! argh! whampoa is a boar!
it wouldn’t surprise me if it was t-mobile, after their current advertising. There as posters up on billboards and at bus stops announcing they’re “setting the internet free.” Could this be ready for the iPhone??
Simon,
iPhone, according to S.Jobs, is going to be released in ‘Asia’ at the beginning of 2008.
‘Asia’ might be taken to include ‘Australasia’.
N’est-ce pas?
In the US, the two major networks are so different that Apple had to choose between one or the other. In Europe, most networks are largely compatible, so there isn’t a technical reason to choose one as the sole supplier.
I would have thought that any network that is able to offer the infra-structure modifications needed to properly support the iPhone would be suitable. Unless there is a compelling reason to choose just one, such as to allow Apple to adopt a stronger negotiating position, there could be many advantages in offering iPhone via more than one network
I recently read a piece where the speculation was that T-Mobile would likely get the iPhone contract because Vodafone wouldn’t want to give up it’s music download portal in favor of iTunes. This notion is silly; T-Mobile has more to lose in that respect than Vodafone, since T-Mobile owns Musicload, which is the number two download portal in Europe behind iTunes. Vodafone’s portal sucks monkey testicles, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they would sacrifice it in favor of an iPhone deal.