So, if you believe the rumor mill, then
T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom) has clinched the iPhone for Germany right? Perhaps, but that hasn't stopped BMW from showing off this picture of the iPhone running with Voda...(fone) at their Frankfurt Motor Show website. Now we'd chalk this up to some speculative Photoshopping on BMW's part but we also received a tip from a reader claiming to have seen a Vodafone iPhone in the BMW area over the weekend. What the? Anyone at the autoshow care to sneak out some snaps?
Update: Meanwhile... our readers have united on the edge of Occam's razor with the following conclusion: international roaming.
[Via
itrafik, thanks Jay A.]
Read -- Photo above found in the iPhone section
posted Sep 17th 2007 at 8:57AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bjarke @ Sep 17th 2007 9:05AM
I think they've just unlocked it, hence the "Voda..." like an unlocked phone would do, Not Vodafone in a smaller font size. I'll see if i can get some pics when i'm there.
wiliamo @ Sep 17th 2007 9:09AM
Interestingly, they also have a phone running on AT&T in the main page.
Obviously, AT&T isn't the European one, but still.
Also, if you look a bit more closely, the backing of the 4 icons at the bottom (phone, iPod, etc.) is more blue-looking than the American version shown on Apple's website. And really, why would anyone at BMW bother to photoshop in the Voda... up the top, unless it's a bit of wishful thinking.
Yojimbo @ Sep 17th 2007 11:56AM
If you look at all the colored areas the entire image is color shifted to the blues... the bottom dock is normal when this is taken into account.
luuk @ Sep 17th 2007 9:10AM
hmmmm, like 20 news items about getting the sim lock of an iphone....
and than : OH theres a sim lock free iphone ?!?!?!?!?
mighty @ Sep 17th 2007 9:13AM
AT&T has a roaming agreement with Vodafone, hence the Voda...
I saw another iPhone here in Italy (it was NOT unlocked) which showed the same Voda... network.
Alan Partridge @ Sep 17th 2007 9:48AM
Yeah i was going to write the same thing. Seems like the most logical explanation
morcheeba @ Sep 17th 2007 11:52AM
Also, if Vodafone was the main partner, I'm sure they wouldn't stand for the bastardization of their name.
MARSHAK @ Sep 17th 2007 3:07PM
that makes sense but also raises another point. if voda is already a roaming partner and works with the iphone why would apple not use them as the provider. if apple then at&t, if at&t then voda. thus if apple then voda.
Kragmose @ Sep 17th 2007 9:17AM
It's gotta get to Europa *very* soon. Or else I'll do drastic stuff, like buying a touch.
Alien Grey @ Sep 17th 2007 9:23AM
We all know that the iPhone can be unlocked and can be used with any SIM card after that. I saw a video of some Frenchies that unlocked their iPhones, using the "Geohot" method and they were using Vodafone.
Whether they were unlocked or not, it's obviously possible to run it, since AT&T has a relationship with Vodafone in Europe. More than likely, it's unlocked.
HOLLAND @ Sep 17th 2007 9:23AM
Maybe when you go from the US to Europe the carrier here becomes Vodafone?
Would seem likely.
Ploum @ Sep 17th 2007 10:02AM
The guy who showed me the iPhone in the BMW explained to me that the phone was connected to AT&T US network via Roaming, in order to work in Europe. This kind of roaming is very expensive but can work with any operator.
Now, I think I will trust more the demonstrator than any engadget reader's speculation but it's up to you.
JBruno @ Sep 17th 2007 10:14AM
Roaming. I saw 10+ different carrier names on my iPhone while traveling Europe -- Each had the '...'.
Emre Aydinceren @ Sep 17th 2007 9:49AM
International roaming it is.
Zhalfim Deyn @ Sep 17th 2007 9:55AM
I have never seen so many engadget commenters agree so easily before...am totally impressed...
(yeah, international roaming makes a hell of a lot more sense than showing off an unlocked phone...why should BMW care about the costs anyway?)
Steve Butler @ Sep 17th 2007 9:57AM
I'm well annoyed because like the day after I bought an iPod touch on eBay they say they're announcing the iPhone here in the UK tomorrow which is slightly annoying now I have to own both
Congratulations Apple on yet anther biblical cock up; let's face it Apple do do some stupid anti-europe stuff sometimes =]
It took them until September 2007 just to get TV shows on UK iTunes; my guess is 2020 for the movies =]
Alan Partridge @ Sep 17th 2007 11:11AM
To be fair they said "Q4 2007 for Europe" when the US release date was announced and we all knew it would come out before Christmas.
Dave @ Sep 17th 2007 10:43AM
That's a bad news... i have Swisscom (they have a partnership with Vodafone) so I guess i won't be able to buy an iPhone when it'll be out here in Switzerland...
Alien Grey @ Sep 17th 2007 11:54AM
you could unlock it. :)
dj-kenpo @ Sep 17th 2007 10:57AM
and the editors aren't just assuming it's simply an unlocked iphone because....... c'mon guys. I comment on most of the iphone stories, but I gotta agree for once, this one ain't news. hacking, sure, unlocked iphone caught int he wild, no.
josejuan05 @ Sep 17th 2007 10:59AM
not having an iPhone I wouldn't be an expert. But I'd prefer to say it's unlocked. C'mon. Even big businesses don't want to pay for _that_ much international roaming.
JBo @ Sep 17th 2007 11:11AM
So, I get that the whole iPhone thing is a cool gadget and that's why the device itself is covered here, but doesn't something this inane and completely un-related to the gadget itself belong on Engadget Mobile, not Engadget? I'll even give you the unlock hacks as belonging here, but service providers? Who gives a flip!
Carsten @ Sep 17th 2007 11:31AM
Audi had one too! They got the iPhone from Apple Germany running on Vodafone! This phone was a 4GB Version without UMTS! ;)
george @ Sep 17th 2007 11:50AM
BMW runs a contract with Telefonica (o2 Germany) and not with Vodafone - so it must be Roaming.
daniel Wahl @ Sep 17th 2007 12:29PM
... in case of ANY roaming the current provider will be shown. Since we have oh so many AT&T cells in germany i assume this is just an american model during roaming .... d
John B. @ Sep 17th 2007 1:53PM
did anyone ever notice when ever some rumor pic come out almost everybody call it a photoshop n then 98% of the time it turns out real?
James @ Sep 17th 2007 3:22PM
European networks are bizarre. I'm on O2 UK and when I holiday in France I get mainly Bouyges FR which is the main French O2 partner but even so, SFR (largely Vodafone owned) and Orange are still there. When in Germany I get O2 Germany (for obvious reasons) and sometimes Vodafone.
This is most certainly not an unlocked iPhone. Just think of the possible questions Apple could start asking BMW if it was. Most certainly roaming.
Chris @ Sep 17th 2007 4:02PM
Is it just me or did that iPhone have a bluetooth icon at the top corner?
moulles @ Sep 17th 2007 6:24PM
Since Apple seems quite handy at getting concessions out of carriers, I wonder if they would use their muscle to get the carriers to agree on providing cheap international data roaming to each other's iPhone wielding traveling customers? Without cheap data, the iPhone is a decent phone with a lot of useless/expensive applications.