“Mobile giant O2 confirmed yesterday that the first of the iPhones, which combine a phone with a widescreen iPod music player and an internet browser, will go on sale in Ireland on March 14,” Jason O’Brien reports for The Independent.
“But Irish consumers will have to make a significant financial commitment if they want to own the latest must-have gadget. As well as paying out between €399 and €499 for the iPhone itself, depending on the storage capacity, they will also have to sign up to an 18-month contract with o2 costing at least €45 per month,” O’Brien reports. “It means the cheapest iPhone will set you back €1,209 over the next year and a half.”
MacDailyNews Take: So, how much are O2’s other data plans combined with devices that do the same things as iPhone… oh, wait, there are none of those.
O’Brien continues, “‘You can’t compare it with other products,’ Danuta Gray, O2 Ireland CEO said yesterday. ‘Comparing it with a standard handset is just not like-for-like. I have music on it, videos on it, DVDs, photo albums, camera. To me it’s just an amazing device and I think the type of price here compared with this type of functionality is where the value should be judged.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, what Danuta said.
O’Brien continues, “The device, which plays videos and music and sends email, as well as having an impressive touch-screen navigation system, will be sold in an 8GB and 16GB version here. The 16GB version will cost €499, compared with approximately €430 in Britain and €370 in the US, as of yesterday’s exchange rates. However, despite the price tag, O2 is confident that the queues seen in the US last June and in Britain last November will be replicated here. ‘I’d say your Apple freaks will be queuing out the door when we launch,’ Ms Gray said.”
Full article here.
“Freak” is a term of endearment on the Emerald Isle. 
hey great minds think alike!
that has nothing to do with those two posts, but still, i have heard, great minds think alike!
To C1 and shen:
I wish. But Biff got away . . . again. Dammit ! ! !
@ shen
No they don’t!!!
Or do they?
My mind doesn’t feel so great today.
@ Ampar
Whoa Doc, that’s heavy.
Oh yeah…
@ MAC dorks
Suck on that!!!
Before he got away did he wash your car? I mean really wash your car. He didn’t pull your leg did he?
Your potential. Our passion.™
@ ZT
Are you calling me ‘chicken’?
C1: I think it’s his density.
@ Ampar
Great Scott!
And since we’re on a movie quote kick, I think it should be pointed out that LEON IS GETTING LAAAAARGERRRR…
(I couldn’t resist)
And Danuta Gray is a real freak if she thinks that we Mac lovers who have held out in pain for the iPhone introduction in Ireland are going to be ripped off like she wants.
One either side of an invisible line in Ireland separating North/South O2 charges:
North: £35 (€45) a month tariff for 600 minutes, 500 txts, unlimited data, free wifi at hotspots, visual voicemail all on a 18 month contract.
South: same person for €45 a month will get 175 minutes, 100 txts, 1gb data, no free wifi access, no visual voicemail and on a 18 month contract too……wonder why all my friends are going to unlock???
This is starting to “freak me out”.
“This is my happening, and it freaks me out!”
(anybody that knows that one – WITHOUT looking it up – gets a lolly)
“There’s juice freaks, and pill freaks, and then everybody’s a freak! What you need is grass or a downer or something.”
Ah ah aahhh…. “Superwoman”.
You must be serious! It means NOTHING if you are not serious!
Canadians should boycott Rogers until they bring the iPhone to Canada. Don’t buy any Rogers-on-Demand movies, don’t subscribe to Rogers Home Phone, don’t sign up for any contracts but stay month-to-month (they hate that), don’t buy your next handset from Rogers, instead get an unlocked phone and use it on their network. Do not expand your services with Rogers. Don’t spend any more money with them than you have to. This is the only thing that will make them pay attention.
Rogers-On-Demand? Do people call them “rods”?
“Honey, make some popcorn, I’ve got 2 rods downloading.”
I mean that’s just comedy gold.
“Z-Man? There is no Z-Man, varlet. And indeed, it’s not a game we play.”
“Languid Roxanne finds beauty, that delicate pinch of feminine spice with which she oftens flavors her interludes.”
BEST. MOVIE. EVER.
Not LOTR?
On my personal list? No. It’s behind BTVOTD, Short Bus, Shindler’s List, Mulholland Drive, Amelie, Fear and Loathing…, and Altered States.
But it’s pretty close.
It is, however, the first movie on my list that isn’t about drugs, lesbians, or France.
I trust my Republican colleagues would approve.
Love those gay, French addicts. THAT’S a party.
Mot.