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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.

7 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. France's iPhone by Jerm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sure the fact that Apple will finally have to reveal how much the iPhone will cost unlocked / sans contract has nothing to do with the fact that France is getting it last...

    --
    Jerm
    Oh, you're not a real doctor, are you?
    1. Re:France's iPhone by edittard · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, that's less than $600. For a phone. What a bargain!
      600? more like 564.
      Is there some particular part of less than you'd like help with?
      --
      At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  2. "It was love at first sight," said one 50-year-old by Marbleless · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... who clearly has never had a girlfriend ;)

    --
    --I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
  3. Not that great a phone, not that great a contract by DJoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the UK, we're used to getting our phones for free. Now, nobody is expecting to get an iPhone for free, however, this contract does show a marked change... Here, when we take out a phone contract, we get a phone for free ( higher the rate of contract, the more expensive phone you can have ). The carrier will lock you into the contract for usually 12 months ( sometimes now 18 months ), in order to recoup the cost of the phone. That's fair enough, good value, everyone happy. If you *buy* a phone here, you aren't locked into a contract, and can switch provider or have Pay-As-You-Go etc. With the iPhone, you have to *pay* for the phone, *and* you get locked into a min 18 month contract. So what cost is the carrier recouping? The fees it's paying to Apple, that's what. In the first instance, the benefit and the cost-penalty go to the consumer. Fair play. In the second instance, the cost-penalty stays with the consumer, but the benefit moves to Apple. Someone somewhere is rubbing their hands with glee, but it's not the little guy on the street. Sorry, it's a nice shiny device, with a very cool interface, but it's lacking in some important features, and I know a bad deal when I see one.

  4. Re:Not so good for Apple by estarriol · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is easy to explain. The iPhone brings nothing new to the table in Europe, where all of its features are available generally in other phones, and most are common in any high-end phone. In America, which for some reason appears to be 2-3 generations behind Europe in the mobile phone arena, this isn't true.

    iPhone in America = OMFG this phone has everything, even a camera!
    iPhone in Europe = Pretty, cool, doesn't do X as well as Nokia or Y as well as Sony Ericsson and OMFG the price!
  5. 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?
  6. 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.