“A new 3G (European) version of the iPhone will be launched Monday in the UK by Apple – in a join promotion with Vodafone, T-Mobile of Germany, and Carphone Warehouse. It should answer the disappointment with the US version of the iPhone which has been widely slammed for its poor performance as a phone,” Guy J. Kewney blogs for newswireless.net.
MacDailyNews Take: Kewney’s description, “widely slammed,” seems a bit over the top. The network speed has been mentioned as a disappointment (especially when compared to iPhone’s on-board Wi-Fi performance, which blows away 3G, of course) in some initial hands-on reviews, of which there have been just four so far. The jury is still out on how it will perform after AT&T finishes prepping EDGE for the expected influx of millions of iPhones.
Kewney continues, “Hints of the European launch emerged yesterday when Bill Condie of the London Evening Standard tipped Vodafone to be the official carrier, which will be confirmed Monday. But Voda is just part of the picture, with Apple going for a three-pronged European strategy with carriers – again, responding to disappointment in America with the exclusive deal with AT&T/Cingular.”
“Shipment date is still unknown, but ‘on course’ for the year-end date predicted last October by Apple CEO Steve Jobs” Kewney reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: European Guy Kewney is the wireless Editor of eWeek.com and columnist for IT Week and Personal Computer World.
