“Apple has joined forces with Orange to offer a package of broadband internet and computer hire to French consumers,” Matt Chapman reports for vnunet.com.
Chapman reports, “The two firms plan to hire out a MacBook laptop and provide a 1Mbps broadband connection for just €2 (£1.34) a day.”
“Apple and Orange hope that the €60 (£40) a month deal will appeal to younger French citizens who do not typically buy microcomputers or subscribe to broadband internet services,” Chapman reports.
Chapman reports, “Apple will take €35 of the €60 fee to cover the €418 cost of the entry-level MacBook and the technical support.”
Full article with more details and links here.
Hey, throw in a banana phone and some sour grapes and you have a fruit salad…
Insert terrible fruit joke below:
C’est bon.
D”abord!
You just cannot compare the two.
That is a strange manoever alright. Doubt this will be kept up for long.
Le troisième commentaire? Je suis trop lent.
moiaussi moiaussi
In related news, UK tech stalwarts Chalk and Cheese have announced plans to develop a joint venture into…
I think I had a dream about this…
And now we know how much a mac book costs Apple. Unless they are wrong about the €418 cost.
It still irks me that Apple products in the States are +-25% cheaper than in Europe, and don’t let me get started about South Africa, Here the price difference is about 30%. Unless the prices quoted in the US Apple Store exclude sales taxes – then the difference would not be so bad, but still bad enough
In order for Apple to also increase their market share in the rest of the world, they need to do something to make the price more atttractive.
just my 2 cents (US)
ph8te: “Unless the prices quoted in the US Apple Store exclude sales taxes – then the difference would not be so bad, but still bad enough”
In the US, sales taxes are not included in the listed prices of products (with few exceptions). This is at least partly due to the fact that sales taxes vary in the US from state to state, and in many states, from county to county. At least two states do not charge sales taxes.
And rumour has it that Orange and Google are teaming up on a phone. Connection with Apple?
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36417
The iGoople l’Orange Portable. Rolls off the tongue.
Génial!
So, young French people don’t bother to use the internet?
They are out there.
There’s more to the story about France’s slower adoption of the Internet. They’ve had the free telco-provided Minitel since 1982, with now tens of thousands of online information services — and it’s all in French. Online maps, stores, dating services, free multilingual translations. Why would they want to live in the English-dominated Internet sphere? And pay big bucks for gear when a whole generation has grown-up getting a free Minitel terminal with their phone service?
Apple is making a smart move here, modeling this rental scheme after what people already know and love. But the Internet is still just playing catch-up in France.
And just think about it, when you live in a such a beautiful country where you can go anywhere via high-speed rail, enjoy cafes, the worlds most mindblowing foods, wines and baked goods (cheap), bicycle races — and art is everywhere — you can see why active young people don’t want to necessarily want to waste their lives sitting in the dark ‘net surfing when they can be out socializing. The Internet…that’s at work.
More about Minitel here: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december95/12kessler.html
vive Apple