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Fans Cheer as Apple's iPhone Finally Hits Europe

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the fall-is-apple-season dept.

An anonymous reader sent in this article which opens, "Apple fans lined up through Yesterday night in Germany and Britain to be among the first in Europe to buy an iPhone, the must-have gadget that is set to shake up the mobile industry." Over 10,000 phones were sold in Germany by Friday afternoon. In France, however, the iPhone doesn't arrive until the end of month.

2 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. Obligitory by zerocool^ · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Maddox' take on it:

    http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone

    An objective comparison:

    --------- | iPhone | Nokia E70
    Resolution: | 320x480 | 352x416
    Storage: | 4 or 8 gigs (fixed). | Unlimited. The E70 can use hot-swappable 2 GB mini SD cards, so you can have as much storage as you want.
    Can customize ringtones with your own mp3s: | NO | YES
    Can record video: | NO | YES
    Screen turns into a smudgy piece of shit after a few minutes of use: | YES | NO
    Can send MMS messages: | NO | YES
    You have to send your phone to Apple when the battery dies and risk getting your phone lost, stolen, or damaged in transit: Yes. No.
    Plays MP3s: | YES | YES
    Holds your phone hostage to Apple for new software updates because Apple won't allow everyone to develop applications for it: | YES | NO
    Voice dialing: | NO | YES
    Can record voice: | NO | YES
    Instant messaging: No. Yes.
    Can't do fundamental tasks like copy & paste text: Yes. No. Double negative, bitches!
    --
    sig?
  2. Re:Not that great a phone, not that great a contra by BlueParrot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What is happening is that you are paying for the phone by taking out a loan, and then that loan gets repaid over 18 or 12 months in the form of fees that are higher than they are at other companies where you do not get a phone. This may be a good deal, and it should be evaluated the same as any other kind of loan. It is certainly not free!


    You managed the first sentence, now read the rest of the post to understand what he was actually complaining about. Basically:

    Regular phone: You pay up fornt OR you get a locked contract.
    iPhone: You pay up front AND you get a locked contract.

    Now, if the up-front price of the iPhone was lower than other phones, then you could argue that they just use a different payment plan. However, the iPhone is more expensive AND binds you to a less favourable contract. I.e, its already horrific price tag is even worse than it appears.