Matthew Key, O2 UK chief executive, tells ” the story of how O2 landed the [exclusive Apple iPhone] deal [in the UK] – and what it’s like to do business with the most iconic computer company in the world,” Dominic White reports for The Telegraph.
“Key recalls arriving at Apple HQ that Tuesday morning with Cesar Alierta and Julio Linares, number one and two at O2’s Spanish owner, Telefonica. They were ushered to the office of Steve Jobs, who welcomed them in, wearing trademark jeans, black top, and trainers,” White reports.
“‘He’s a hugely impressive guy, hugely impressive guy,’ beams Key, remembering his first encounter with the quasi-legendary Apple founder. ”He clearly knows his stuff in a level of detail that for someone at that level is mindblowing, and he has a great incisiveness in terms of what the customer wants and needs in products,'” White reports.
White reports, “Jobs and his henchmen wanted a single network partner but still didn’t know how they were going to launch the iPhone in the UK; unlike Key, once Jobs had shown him the device. ‘I played with it for two minutes and just thought, ‘oh my God, this is leagues above anything I’ve ever seen before’,’ he gushes (to be fair, so do most people who’ve seen the device). ‘If you see the photo functionality, watch videos on it on YouTube, or the weather, or just see the threading on the texting, or the visual voicemail.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David” for the heads up.]
The first television adverts starting running in the UK last night, which coincided with the launch of the UK’s iPhone sub-site at http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone where you can see the localised version of the marketing.
Apparently the German site is up too.
Counting down the hours until Friday when I can buy an O2 iPhone from Apple Store Regent Street.
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Only bad thing I’ve heard? They might have one of those lame 6pm deals going down. 🙁
This is why Apple succeeds where others don’t. They simply don’t get what it means to be Apple, or to design products that people want. Those sour grapes executives criticizing O2 are just mad because they weren’t good enough for Apple. They’re making excuses so they don’t get kicked out by their boards and stockholders for blowing the deal of the century for British phone companies.
Attention to detail. That’s what we’re about.
Anyone know what time the iPhone will be for sale at the Apple Stores??
I plan to go to the Brent Cross Apple Store to get my iPhone and I wanna get there early!
I know by the end of the weekend all the Apple Stores, O2 and Carphonewarehouse store are gonna be empty!
Carphonewarehouse alone reckons they will 10,000 iphones withing the 1st 4 hours!
Hey dudes,
Apparently it’s unlimited data on O2 with the iPhone. And they aren’t capping it or having a fair use policy either.
Sweet!
I guess this is over GSM data not Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi just works out of the box like it does on the iPod Touch yeah?
Anybody know the answer to this one? Sorry to sound dense.
dos anyone know if we can put in an O2 sim card in an iPhone bought in the US when we are traveling to the UK?
WiFi – you will need to configure the iphone (easy) for it to work on secure wifi networks, or anywhere you need to pay for a hotspot (common here in the US). With free or open wifi, it works straight out of the box (you must turn WiFi on…).
Worth noting… My best battery life is when I set the email to check once per hour, and with WiFi off. I get 48+ hrs like this, with frequent use and email checks manually. With WiFi on, and email set to check frequently, the battery life drops noticeably.
@ petey
Rumours are 6pm, but I hope they’re wrong and it’s from first thing in the morning. Waiting in line with thousands of people in the cold and dark is a PITA.
@ British Mac Head
Go to the O2 site and they mention the ‘fair use policy’, it is not unlimited data (like the US gets). CNet pointed out last week that’s O2 are stretching this term as it’s only 300MB per month for EDGE/GPRS and 60 hours for The Cloud useage. I kid you not.
@ joe
I don’t think that will work, you’ll need to be on the correct O2 iPhone tarrif.
hi, im in republic of ireland , when can we expect to see iphone available here and through who –02 Ireland i presume ??
O2 start selling the iPhone at 6.02 pm on Friday, and their shops will be open till 10 pm.
6.O2. Get it?
@Vanillacide.
Latest news –
O2 has scrapped plans to cap web usage on the Apple iPhone, leaving users free to download as much data as they like.
”… So we’ve taken the decision to remove the fair usage cap so that ‘unlimited’ really does mean ‘unlimited’ – this is a market first.”
Have gander at this
@SKY LARK
Cheers mate, that’s made my day.
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6pm is still a PITA though, and I aint going to no O2 or CPW store … it’s the Apple Store for me. Now, Regents Street or Bluewater?
How? Lies, theft, distortions, bribery, threats, ……
The Apple way!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com