Rory Cellan-Jones asks for BBC News, “Will customers really want to pay what Apple and O2 are going to charge the iPhone’s early adopters? And given the high price that the network and its customers will face, will the iPhone prove such a great deal?”
MacDailyNews Take: A clever ruse, Rory, but we see right through it. Apple is not going to drop iPhone prices in the UK the equivalent of US$200. Look at the new U.S. price, look at the UK price and factor in the VAT and cover for currency flucutations: the $200 U.S. price cut is already in the UK price. There is no “early adopter” price for the UK iPhone. Yesterday, Steve Jobs replied to just such a question, “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” (Of course, Jobs did cover his backside with the usual, “but in technology there are no guarantees” disclaimer).
Cellan-Jones continues, “The O2 website crashed soon after the iPhone announcement, apparently gasping under the weight of inquiries from excited customers.”
“Apple design flair and sheer useability which made the iPod such a big hit and has created such a buzz around the phone,” Cellan-Jones reports. “But Nokia – and O2’s rival networks – are bound to hit back with keen prices and new handsets as the Christmas sales battle gets under way.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, they are, are they? How are they “bound to hit back” exactly, Rory? With what? Based on what OS? Using which UI? Will they have iPods built-in? What’s that, Rory? Are you imitating a lonely cricket chirping or is it that you don’t have any answers? Apple has over 200 patents related to iPhone that are pending and granted which Apple CEO Steve Jobs has publicly stated that Apple plans to vigorously defend. Nobody’s “bound to hit back” with anything remotely comparable to Apple’s iPhone for years. This fact won’t stop some reviewers and marketers from telling you lies.
Cellan-Jones continues, “[O2], owned by Spain’s Telefonica, believes that Steve Jobs’ ‘magical’ handset will win it many new customers from its rivals. And judging by what happened to its website this morning, it may just be right.”
Full article here.
BOOM!
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I’m sure it will be just as successful on the otherwise of the pond as it is on this side. I am loving my iPhone (unlocked version so I can use it in Canada).
iPhone is not such a big hit over here in the UK. The press and public response has been negative overall..
Apple have segmented themselves out of the game
Come on, MDN! Get in the real world. Americans may be dumb enough to buy the iPhone with its terrible OS and ugly design, but we in Britain call tell the different between hype and helium.
Almost makes me want to move from California to England so I can stand in line again on Launch Day.
Lots of websites crash, just look at MDN. It doesnt mean they are popular just badly supported, just like MDN.
@ChrissyOne
What you talkin’ ’bout? I’ve never had a problem with MDN. Have you checked to make sure your ISP is working properly?
According to the article, Nokia’s N95 model is substantially less expensive (TCO), even though it offers 3G and GPS and a 5 megapixel camera. While I own an iPhone and love it, I bet Apple will have a harder time in England if their prices are that much higher than an N95. iPhone will still do OK, but it’s hard to believe it will be a home run if it’s pricing is not as competititve as it is in the US.
MDN is slooooow, loads loads of crap behind the scenes and actuall works better on a PC than on a Mac.
@ChrissyOne
MDN is badly supported? What’s that in the very bottom right corner of MDN pages? Scroll down, I’ll wait.
‘Powered by Mac’. That’s right. You want top-notch server support? Get Windows. I bet my Zune could power MDN better than their namby-pamby toy MACs.
Your potential. Our passion.™
@Ken
Huh, not sure. I’m on a G4 that’s pretty loaded down itself but still returns MDN rather quickly. Crazy…
the site has become a social site and less and less about Apple stuff
booooo!!!!
Add me to your friends list.
I’ve now blocked you from my iChat friends list. Now it’s both Apple AND social.
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http://www.macoffice2008.com/flv/elements_gallery.flv
At nearly 5 MB’s it takes some time to load and since Flash doesn’t get “cached” it must reload when you switch between the tabs.
Poor page design and tiny size make the page a joke.
Oops.
Posted in the wrong page.
Just the level of punditry regarding the imminent failure of the iPhone, for one reason or another, is evidence of the unprecedented interest in the it has generated. If you’ve got this level of interest in a product, you’ve got half of your sales job completed. Apple will have a huge portion of the population taking the time to go take a look at the device to see it in action. And when they see the iPhone in action the notion that it costs too much simply disappears.
Many in the press seem to imply that if the iPhone doesn’t replace all cell phones for all users it is a failure. Apple is looking for just a small slice of a big pie and are on track to accomplish what they set out to do.
Hmm, iPhones been out 75 days, don’tcha think maybe, just maybe, O2 did some market studies before signing such a beneficial contract with Apple????
MDN is the single slowest web site front page EVAR!!!
O2’s e-shop website started to creak at about 11am BST yesterday and by 11:30 was absolutely crippled and by 11:45 there was a holding page requesting customers to phone an 0870 number (yep, cos when people want to buy something from you and you can’t deliver a reliable infrastructure , to the point that it only became practical to view the information through Carphone Warehouse’s website.
As much as I like the BBC in general and BBC News specifically, their technology coverage is dire and Cellan-Jones is a lazy hack who never even tries to get behind the story – witness his softball interview with Bill Gates during the Vista launch and you’ll get a flavour of how bad it can be.
The deeper story is not the £269 that the phone costs, nor is it the fact that it can do multiple things including being an iPod. The deeper story is the fact that the launch of the iPhone turns the UK’s cellular data pricing model on its head and then gives it a good shake.
O2’s existing data plans range from a reasonable-sounding £5.00 a month(reasonable until you realise that only gets you 5MB of data) to £45.00 for unlimited usage. Orange charges £55.00 for unlimited data. Vodafone will charge you £25.00 for a monthly maximum of 3GB of traffic.
Simple intelligence would tell somebody that £25.00 for data (3GB and no Wi-Fi minutes) + £63.00 for 1200 minutes (Vodafone) doesn’t compare so well to £55.00 for 1200 minutes of voice, unlimited “fair use” data over the air plus the additional benefit of “fair use” unlimited access to 7,500 Wi-Fi hot-spots, but then simple intelligence is rapidly becoming a rare commodity in many areas of journalism even in print where there is a possibility to deliver a real explanation of how things work to your readers.
Most doubters here are totally missing the point. If there is any market in the world that is used to paying $0 (or the UK Pound Sterling equivalent of, well, zero pounds) for a cellphone, it is the United States. There are almost no pre-paid plans here (a fraction of the population actually uses them). Meanwhile, in the UK, and even more so in other EU (or non-EU) countries in Europe, pay-as-you-go (or pre-paid) concept is very popular, and in some places, even dominant. There, people pay full price for their phones, and change them early and often.
So, even in a market that is used to paying $0, Apple has sold a million of $550 devices in less than three months. Does anyone honestly believe that the UK (or EU) market is going to be difficult? Not to mention how purchasing power of a US citizen is about two-thirds of that of an EU citizen! Even if it is a bit more expensive (about $450 before taxes/VAT, against $400 in the US), it will still be more affordable in the EU than to an average American.
If the misfortune of the O2’s website is any indication, we’ll see long lines across UK, Germany (and probably France, if tomorrow’s announcement goes as expected) on 9 November.
A quick check on the pricing of N95 says that it retails for $600 (at least). Even with subsidies, it cannot be less than about $300. This is just not enough of a difference to motivate an average consumer.
Apple has absolutely nothing to worry about.
MDN is a very slow site. Bloated with tons of ads. I love the news, but they are totally contradictory to everything Apple:
Styling: so so
Bloat: Yes. Takes forever to load.
Subjecting us to ads: EVERY POSSIBLE PIXEL OF FREE SPACE!
Ease of use: Alright, this is fine.
Innovation: innovation?
sorry mdn, but there is no justification for the rip off the is the iPhone in the UK. I’d like one but I ain’t paying way more than you guys in the US for the privaledge
Milney:
You got it wrong. The price of the iPhone in the US is £200. If you were to add your UK VAT to it, it would come to £235 (assuming VAT is 17.5%). Now, you have to keep in mind that the purchasing power of an average UK citizen is about 30% higher than that of an average American.
Bottom line, your UK price for your iPhone is actually more affordable in the UK than the US price is in the US. Obviously, if you were to buy a plane ticket to New York, you could buy your stuff here cheaper and bring it back. IPhones wouldn’t be a good choice, though, as they come with a US SIMM card (AT&T;), which you wouldn’t be able to activate in the UK (obviously). Perhaps a better choice would be to come with some £1,000 in your pocket (or credit card), buy some 7 iPod Touches, take them home, sell them there and pocket some £300 difference (enough for the iPhone). This of course provided they don’t catch you at the airport and confiscate the contraband merchandise…
Following my previous thought, if you were to think big, you could perhaps buy some MacBooks for £550 each and get £700 each in the UK… MacBook Pros might even be more lucrative… £1,000 in the US, £1,300 in the UK… Then, if you had a friend in the US, he could order one online from a reseller, and pay neither shipping, nor tax, maximising your profits!
After all is said and done, the price difference between the two markets is rather small. As I said, if you take into account purchasing power, UK citizens are getting a better deal than those in the US.