“Mobile operator Orange will begin selling an unlocked an iPhone in France next month. This is due to a French law that prohibits exclusively bundling a handset with a wireless carrier,” BetaNews reports.
“Like in other European countries, the locked iPhone will cost 399 euros. The unlocked iPhone will cost more, Orange said, but will not specify how much until November,” BetaNews reports.
Full article here.
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What is the sales tax in NY? I had planned to buy an iPod touch next week (much cheaper than our price over here), but maybe the tax makes it comparable. What about Massachusets? Do they have sales tax there as well?
Thanks.
Betcha that high priced iPhone for France has 16G of flash.
If the locked iPhone will go for €399 plus contract. The unlocked phone will go phone for either €499 or €599. The value of Apple’s cut of the contract would put it in the lower €500s, so I’m sure that both Apple’s & Orange’s bean counters and PR people are arguing whether they can get away with sticking it to people vs. the positive press of the lower price point.
Oh and for those of you arguing about the value of of the dollar vs. the Euro, when the Euro was first introduced in 1999, €1 = USD$1.40. The Euro promptly tanked reaching a nadir of €1 = USD$0.82. At the current exchange rate the Euro is simply back where it started. Over time the Euro and the U.S. Dollar will be roughly equal.
Apple has to pick a happy medium as far as its prices go.
New York sales tax:
http://www.earthodyssey.com/sales_tax.html
@BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots and @Me,
The US dollar is down over 10% since the beginning of the year and the country is still borrowing from other countries at a furious pace to fund the war. If you’ve had money in a CD at 5.5% you’ve been losing money all year. That doesn’t mean the economy is about to fail, just that we’re all paying for the war.
War companies, especially the Bush, Cheney, Rice oil industries, have made more additional profits from the war than the cost of the war. The oil price rise is the most obvious and Haliburton’s gross overcharging has made the most headlines. So the taxpayers of US (and UK) are paying in one end and the executives and shareholders of Texaco, Haliburton, Chevron, BP, Shell, Raytheon, Carlisle Group and all those guys are taking it out the other. Who said the war wasn’t going according to plan? – it depends if you know what the plan was.
MagicWord evidence – go find it!
I’m gonna laugh when all these people go to France to get an unlocked iPhone, only to realize that the UI is in French.
Or has Apple said anything about supporting ability to switch localization settings on the european iPhones?
@Ryan,
I’m guessing you’ll be able to apply a firmware update to take care of that. Since the unlock is in the modem firmware, applying a standard iPhone OS firmware update wouldn’t undo the unlock.
This is very good news as it means that owning an unlocked iPhone will no longer be taboo in Apple’s eyes. Hopefully when iPhone comes to Rogers in Canada, they will also offer an unlocked model.
They should offer unlocked iPhones in the US too, and just give AT&T;a big cut of the extra profits from the higher price as compensation for not having carrier exclusivity. People would still have to buy them from either Apple or AT&T;and at say $100-200 more expensive would still be a big incentive to sign a contract with AT&T;as with most cell phones.
@ Kazman, you BASIC is showing!
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@ Me, look at the back of your iPhone and tell me again where that manufacturing output is so cheap?
@ Alec, no, visual voicemail doesn’t work on T-Mobile, because it requires network support on the provider end. Cingular agreed to make add that support as part of their deal with Apple, before Cingular became the new AT&T;.
@ Papyboomer, I was thinking the same thing. Orange and Apple can’t make the unlocked iPhone too much more expensive, or the French courts will not be pleased.
Ok the iPhone is going on sale unlocked in France, DRM free iTunes is now a reality.
Apple will eventually sell it elsewhere unlocked and even though SJ says 3G isn’t worth it, he also said Intel wasn’t needed.
It’s just a matter of waiting…..
“Apple will eventually sell it elsewhere unlocked and even though SJ says 3G isn’t worth it, he also said Intel wasn’t needed.”
Steve eventually sees the light. He usually nees some other company to lead the way, but Apple eventually gets there.
Steve has the dubious distinction of being one of the few Americans ever to surrender to the French.
Good news is that the hacker community will have a “genuine” Apple factory unlocked phone and will be able to copy it bit-to-bit.
399 euros is a good price lower than the average smartphone price.
BUT Apple has several ways to block the transcontinental sales and grey market :
1) make a database of all the IMEI (internal serial number) and assign them only to the French Market and used only thru the French Itunes store.
2) make sure that the French itunes store is accessed only via the French IP range of addresses (if possible)
3) make sure that only an Orange IP range is used to activate the iPhone via Itunes
4) make sure that the very first call/activation is made to a French Orange special toll free number only accessible from France (this is possible)
There is something also strange is that Apple agreed to sell ONLY thru Orange onstreet stores, not on the Apple online store = “bizarre”
In one way maybe Apple is doing this to freeze a little the grey market in order to free the field for iPhone V2.0 ??
@Followers wrote:
“Steve eventually sees the light. He usually nees some other company to lead the way, but Apple eventually gets there.”
Wow, you really are disconnected from reality. Sure, occasionally Apple picks up a good idea from someone else. But to frame Apple broadly as a “follower” (rather than a leader)? Including with respect to DRM?
Wow–just, wow.
Allo Allo, Steve ere, I surrender.
If true, expect French iPhones to be selling on eBay for $1,000 or more.
@Me
“…markup penalty because Apple gets no goodies from Orange to boost their earnings on unlocked phones.”
Orange gives 30% back to Apple! Not very tiny earning, so far!
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Euro is a Euro.
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Pound is a Pound.
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Yen is a Yen
Anyone, who who has resettled from one modern country to another, say, like from the USA to a contemporary European country, or as in my case, Australia to England … not just on an extended holiday! … but living an ongoing life as a local, will know, after a while, after getting your life adjusted to living as a local and earning as a local – in your respected field of excellence – (what ever that line might be) you soon come to realize that –
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Euro is a Euro.
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Pound is a Pound.
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Yen is a Yen
All the conversion rates fall by the wayside and are relatively meaningless. Sure, on holiday, bitch and moan about the cost of a hotel, the price of a coffee or beer, that’s to be expected by most. But when you are earning properly, and living the life as “one of them” – You will soon understand that –
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Euro is a Euro.
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Pound is a Pound.
A Dollar is a Dollar – a Yen is a Yen.
Sitting at home trying to evaluate shit, by exchange rates is by and large dumb. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules, and some armchair experts will differ, but anyone who has successfully assimilated into a new country will agree to the above.
Thanks Believe It. What this means is that even with NYST of nearly 9%, the iPod Touch is still 18% cheaper in NY than in Switzerland.
Oh yeah, and 25% cheaper than in Paris.
MW “know”, as in “now I know where I will buy my iPod Touch”.
“If true, expect French iPhones to be selling on eBay for $1,000 or more.”
Better still, when you see a French guy using an iPhone, walk up behind him and make a loud noise. He’ll immediately put his hands in the air, drop his iPhone and surrender.
@la Job de Steve
and you too surrender, stupid f..k.ng idiot !! French have contributed immensily to this world and piss on you and your ancesters who killed indian children : isn’t it a good cliché now ?
To all the Yanks who has made cracks about the French surrendering, what about…
Vietnam..?
Korea..?
Iran contra debacle?
… soon to be gving up in Iraq.
… “surrendering” the US economy to the Chinese?
I guess memories here are selective. Vive Le France. (BTW, I’m not French, but just open-minded and not filled with ethno-centric smugness)
MW: “College” as in get an education.
“French have contributed immensily to this world”
That’s right. They’ve greatly increased world morale by being a group of people that everyone in the world can feel superior to.